I WOULD LIKE TO LOOK AT THE SKY
I would like to look at the sky, but the stars
open my blood and disturb
the verses on the mouths of the dead:
tonight my mother will not participate
to the breaking of the bread, she will not allow
neither laughs nor prayers, she will turn
all the names down and override them;
tonight my father will not remember
all the times he guessed right, all the times
the word cut his word off.
Tonight I will take a needle to sew
my eyes on my mother's eyes,
a little knife to empty
my bones into my father's bones.
I would like to look at the sky, but the stars
I've got them in my teeth and they hurt.
---
AUTUMN
For some time now the leaves have been uncertain,
the sky doesn't sink
into their dark veins, where the tangled blood
turns down and falls.
This morning a rounding sparrow sang,
announcing the catastrophe.
---
COUPLET
I am looking for a couplet that closes
my verses or gets rid of them.
Translated from italian by Francesca Barresi