Ducati's gone vintage and
resurrected the Scrambler,
Steve McQueen's bike of choice
as a war prisoner in The Great Escape.
I once rode on the back of a Harley.
Grad school at 30 had its perks.
Fearless and helmet-less, I clutched
the seat, not my odd Italian-American date,
as we whirred past cacti flanking
the Phoenix highway.
Ten years later at Ducati headquarters
in Bologna, as a reporter for Advertising Age,
I hoped for a test ride, but had to settle for a photo.
Me and Ducati. Living in the land of tortellini.
Where my taste now ran to fire engine-red motorcycles
whose drivers were devastatingly handsome and spoke Italian.
Amy Barone