Translated from the Italian by Brenda Porster

Classified

Advertisement for aspiring suicides
those who would prefer to be dead
but are incapable of the great act
they stay on simply
because they don’t know how to go
Wanted: reliable company
to share
the imminent end of the world
accomplices to divvy up
what will not be left of us
Beyond themselves
with a long throw
matching up melancholies
like bocce balls competing
for a place on the sand

Dead Zones

The sky-blue stuffed cockerel
crows at your every awakening
You ask yourself about the time
the weather and the season
what you will wear and eat
if and where you’d prefer to live
It crows every sky-blue day
each time from the beginning
you ask yourself
without ever asking that question
Fixed between the pointed weapon
and its target
unaware
you live a privileged life