TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN BY PATRICK WILLIAMSON

All it took was a little rain

and grass populated

each crack in the road.

You walk home

and you’re happy.

* * *

LINGER*

          ​late summer 2023

Dolores is back

        ​– after a blazing-hot summer –

at the end – it’s all soot –

                 ​from the black pipe return

she opened the windows she said

I can no longer see the whole sky

its open quarter of the galaxy

conquers all bends the bars

spreads the canvases

remeasures carefully

clashes

            ​– paints

* Title of a Cranberries song.

 Dolores O’ Riordan was the group’s singer

* * *

THE BREEZE ON THE PO

          ​From Società Canottieri Esperia, a breath

You’ll be happy here,

be happy every day,

                                   ​be happy

every time we ask ourselves

                                    ​a question,

this Wonderful Breeze

    ​will protect everything

and your hands – when needed –

will fall from the bow

           ​to get wet.

* * *

When you get off

the upturned window

that you see reflected

in the glass bar-table

will accompany you for a few metres,

               because only when returning

is memory complete,

because only when returning can we understand

what was there.

* * *

A Pole a Russian a Bosnian a Serb

an American a Turk an Italian.

All together they saved me tonight

I find them there still at my side the Poets

been saving me for thirty years now.

* * *

And now that you’ve not come, now that I return

the man from the script I live in,

I will go into the show alone, but not in despair,

because in the corner you never   ​

                                                 appeared from

came a glass of cold

                                      ​– to relive burning

my youth.

* * *

LLAFRANC

Even with the passing of the years

it is always

the same vision,

the same three beautiful nymphs

– water swimwear –

approaching the sea.

* * *

Never be safe. Never give up the fight.

* * *

END OF A TIRING GOOD DAY

This little bit of happiness in your hands

closed conch in the smile you hide

                    after days like this

knowing that a balance is illusory

                 from horizon to abyss, however

                         ​wonder.

* * *

Das Kapital, im neues Jahrtausend*

Where are the men?

Behind their screens.

Where is Capital?

Above their heads.

Who is Capital?

A few.

What are we to do?

Wake up, rise up.

* Capital, in the new millennium

* * *

Also, read The “What’s in a Name?” Rule Applies to All. All Minus One, That is.— A Book Review of Nabanita Sengupta’s “Chambal Revisited” by Urna Bose published in The Antonym.

The “What’s in a Name?” Rule Applies to All. All Minus One, That is.— A Book Review of Nabanita Sengupta’s “Chambal Revisited”

Follow The Antonym’s Facebook page  and Instagram account  for more content and exciting updates.