from L’Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti
Mariano il 29 June 1916
Quel contadino
si affida alla medaglia
di Sant’Antonio
e va leggero
Ma bensola e ben nuda
senza miraggio
porto la mia anima
WEIGHT
That soldier farmer
relies on the medal
of Saint Anthony
and goes lighthearted
But quite alone and unclothed
without a mirage
I carry my soul
Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love, selected by Yusef Komunyakaa as co-winner in the 2011 Crab Orchard Series Open Poetry Contest, and A Bird Who Seems to Know Me: Poems Regarding Birds & Nature, the winner of the 2018 Ex Ophidia Press Poetry Prize.
