THE POEM

Greetings from Punta Meliso by Lino Angiuli

to Antonioverri and Salvatoretoma

What’s the news over there? Where

the myrtle is sure to be transparent? And

the pomegranate offers up its well-mannered silences?

one by one without showing off?

and what do you think? of our fate?

getting pushed around from noon to midnight?

as if we have to pay

ithe price of a sin? committed

against the one-eyed idol of absence?

And yet

we know how to place one stone next to another

we know how to converse with the mistral that

enrages the sea and changes its mind

we know how to hold an olive tree’s hand

and christen it in the name of the Mediterranean

And yet

how many sacrifices to the totem of the past

disembarkments, embarkments of human flesh

and how many voyages like yours

towards the land in which every word blooms

like a prophecy on a winter’s log.

(Translation by Susan Perry) swiss

From: Cartoline dall’aldiqua: ventotto paesìe, 2004, Quorum Italia, Bari

Santa Maria di Leuca. Photo by Nicola Amato

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