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

I
Adeodato Piazza Nicolai / Saro Marretta / Leonardo Zanier
The Leather Eye-shades
In the center of the house
four pale old men
stare at the casket
with spooked eyes
while the kid
fans flies from the dead
with his mouth half crooked.
On the street horses
with leather eyeshades
sharpen their ears
at the rage of a bull wounded
by a drum. They drop
smoky pellets
from under their tails
they dig at the ground
while slobbering.
Huge sea waves gallop
and these parallels accompany me
dead and swirls
snapping as a coachman’s
whip
behind the procession
of our Lord
sealed in the urn
on Good Friday
that does not turn or move
because it has become
used to the holidays
and his wounds no longer smell
of vinegar
they taste of abandonment
and ages past.
II
“Could I live again
the day of my departure
I would start to run
like a mean beast
goring all with my horns
catapulting them into the sea
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