To Antonia Pozzi[1]
Don’t ask for chrysanthemums
now that you embrace the invisible;
the roses fade the loneliness
boredom is pierced by thorns.
When the day is tinged with the night
the countryside assists
to the cruelest events.
How many moths opacify the air
while the brightest star
suddenly grinds the teeth.
I figure when you were looking for
the nourished pulp of the void
and you lived on boulders and negations,
when borage
in a pool of water
was rotting while coughing in exhaustion.
I look at your strong roots
that rise in whirlpools of air,
embrace the twisted forbidden bodies
and the periwinkles, fixed, watching
astonished the interrupted cycles.
Fight the lost eyes
and the gaunt ivory shoulders
with the deepest knowledge.
If you talk of yourself, you confess the grief
of days abjured to joy.
Nothing smells of gray
but illuminates yearnings of escape
when, severe, you make
the choice of land.
[1] Antonia Pozzi (1912-1938) young Italian poetess from northern Italy who, due to a love disappointment and other existential problems, committed suicide. Her works have been carefully studied for years and her poems are very popular in publications and in critical essays.