November 2018
The poem “Dopo mezzanotte!” is published in “Writing In A Woman’s Voice”, edited by Beate Sigriddaughter, showcasing women’s writing.
Beate Sigriddaughter has been the poet laureate of Silver City, New Mexico, since 2017. She publishes a blog called Writing In A Woman’s Voice, where she features other women’s poetry. For her own poems, she has been nominated multiple times for a Pushcart Prize.
***
Dopo mezzanotte!
Dopo, dopo!
The door pops open,
out of the dust
the ocean
unfolds
under the ropewalker’s
high gloss
black shoes.
He floats
among the buoyant atoms-
the iron nerves of muscled Brussels,
silenzio
fulfils The Place Royal –
no traffic,
only the cinema of
sinking smiles
of women,
oh, excuse me,
of “things”
behind the glass windows,
brought to the citadelle
of cultures,
oh sorry,
to the “Grand Market”
to sell the bodies –
the living sculptures
on Gare du Nord.
The Captives,
in search of lost hopes,
observed by some,
ignored by all,
the poultry
living decades of years
under
the artificial lights,
in high temperatures
of pre-Renaissance
“battery cages”,
not far from new headquarters
of Europa –
a gorgeous
post-modern
Space Egg,
built up of
thousands of windows,
“recycled
and brought from every member state” –
a cleaner’s nightmare,
a symbol
of new life,
the victory of light –
Buon Giorno!
The door gets closed,
the ropewalker
becomes a cock
sitting among
the poultry,
eating his business lunch…
Vivo,
vivo mezzogiorno!
