Journal of Italian Translation - Brooklyn College - Academic Home ...

100
Journal of Italian Translation
Of the foundation. The dead are made of bronze,
But dying they were like birds with clocklike hearts—
Unthinkable, how much pain the tiny parts
Of even the smallest bird might yet contain.
We become larger than life in how much pain
Our bodies may encompass … all Titans in that,
Or heroic statues. Although there is no heat
Brimming in the fixed, memorial summer, the brows
Of lucid metal sweat a faint warm haze
As I try to think the pain I never saw.
Though there is no pain there, the small birds draw
Together in crowds above the houses—and cry
Over the surf: as if there were a day,
Memorial, marked on the calendar for dread
And pain and loss—although among the dead
Are no hurts, but only emblematic things;
No hospital beds, but a lifting of metal wings.