from L’Allegria by Giuseppe Ungaretti
Cima Quattro il 23 dicembre 1915
Un’intera nottata
buttato vicino
a un compagno
massacrato
con la sua bocca
digrignata
volta al plenilunio
conla congestion
delle sue mani
penetrate
nel mio silenzio
ho scritto
lettere piene d’amore
Non sono mai stato
tanto
attaccato alla vita
WAKEFULNESS
A whole night
hunkered close
to a companion
slaughtered
his mouth clenched
eyes looking up
at the full moon
the swelling
of his hands
penetrated
into my silence
I write
letters so full of love
I have never
so closely
held on to life
Wally Swist’s books include Huang Po and the Dimensions of Love (Southern Illinois University Press, 2012), 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 (Ex Ophidia Press, 2019), the winner of the 2018 Ex Ophidia Press Poetry Prize.
