Poetry

Un tempo/Once

Un tempo tenevo sott'occhio l'atlante degli uccelli scomparsi dalla faccia del mondo opera di un allievo di David ch'era fallito nel genere del quadro storico o in altre monumentali prosopopee pittoriche. Riflettevo su simili ipotetici atlanti di vite senza becco e senza piume da millenni irreperibili, insetti rettili pesci e anche perché no? l'uomo stesso…

Another Museum

Over the Museum of Deportation, six Young violinists and two cellists play A waltz of Strauss, while German tourists dance. Why not? It's fin de siècle France, And having grown middle-aged and tired, you Can live with their Jawohls! for, at least, tonight. Behind you, students lick colorful sorbets, Lovers dance drunkenly, stumble to the…

Oh, By the Way

My friend April Fallon tells me that blood on the exterior of the brain is cooler than that in the interior and that it's in the cooler blood that dreams reside. What do you think? Do you love the head as much as I do? That calcareous shell, the stoniest part of the body. And…

A ritroso/Backwards

Fra i miei ascendenti qualcuno lottò per l'Unità d'Italia, raggiunse alti gradi. portò la greca sul berretto, fu coinvolto in brogli elettorali. Non gl'importava forse nulla di nulla, non m'importa nulla di lui; il suo sepolcro rischia di essere scoperchiato per carenza di terra o marmi o altro. C'è una morte cronologica, una che è…

Stresa–The Borromeo Islands

Since you read Stendhal, Flaubert, De Musset, Isola Bella seemed a hazy dream: Ramparts of gardens rising out of water, Water nymphs stunned into statuary, Grottos where walls of pebbles and mortar Formed sea shells and sea creatures, Rooms with mandolins and violas d'amores, Balustrades where assignations were made With a nod, a wink, the…

July 4, 1989

Rain today, rain tomorrow. Today we shotgunned a copperhead coiled near the front porch, blasted it in half and the head end crawled under a log. Yesterday the Supreme Court said it wanted to kill or enslave my daughter. I exaggerate, I always exaggerate. I cleaned the shotgun with a wad of oiled rag and…

Gravedona

Lost in Gravedona without a map, You ask directions in handicap Italian of a stout old woman. She laughs, “Stop struggling, come in, And whilst I think them out, I'll make us tea And, if you don't mind, have a chat with me For I'm half-Welsh, half-Genovese.” Her father built this house, planted trees “That…

Wind From the Sea

Too conscious of our need for pillows, he rises from bed to walk the street. No need, he thinks, for underwear or other gauze to dress his soul. Because he is alone this late at night we can forgive his need for walking out beyond his robe. He is that near to seeing himself as…