As promised (see the teachers' letter in issue 72 of Ombre e Luci), here are the poems written by Francesca's classmates. For three years they have attended the Arnolfo di Cambio – Beato Angelico Middle School in Florence alongside her. In those three years, they have come to know her, to answer her need for companionship, for touch, for love.
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You sit there present
but absent
with your eyes closed.
You hear us
you embrace us.
You live in your own world
where there are no
children, only
silence.
Your Presence
I see your little face
sometimes dimmed, sometimes
lit up—it doesn't matter:
what counts
is that you are near us.
You are like a little bird
that wakes us in the morning.
Thank you, Francesca:
you truly help us
to face life.
A Tree Without Leaves
In the thick forest
of my existence
you are for me
a tree without leaves.
But your vital sap
flows just the same
through your roots.
When the heart is happy
the whole tree shines.
Your small hands
are branches clinging
to mother earth.
My Friend
Francesca,
you, more than anyone else,
know how to comfort me,
and to be my friend.
It is you who embrace me
when I am sad.
The Melody
...In our ears
we hear you
but we do not understand you;
We understand your hunger for life.
We hear you
crying out in a crystal glass.
The Friend
You are
like manna fallen from heaven
Francesca,
You are always ready
to shatter that
silence that sometimes
comes.
You Are With Us
You have been with us for two years
but it feels like a lifetime
has passed since
I first saw you.
I see you silent
and still: you do not speak, you do not
communicate
you do not laugh with us
but you are here and I
have learned to love you
just as you are.
Thanks From the Heart
You are for me the dawn
of a new day.
You brighten our days
and with you
school is more beautiful.
White Angel
You, white angel,
who appear to me in darkness,
have opened the doors
of my life.
You have walked
beside me on my journey
You have helped me
to grow, to understand....