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

Gray Sutherland / Stefano Guglielmin
*
in the oasis where the artificial glows
even odour moves away
yellow as a snake’s breast
sticks a sick tongue out and turns
it away from all that falls
*
flight on branch that does not bear
or syllable that fulfils its task
but is another way of standing on tiptoe if poetry
born from the shell that breaks, remains undone
at the weight of things.
the mother, too,
toil within cage, or wheel
at station café, but is another
different way of standing on thorns, really
a leap that leaves the eyelid unharmed
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