Alfonso Gatto
ANNIVERSARY
I remember those days: in the unknown
morning where the ten-or of being left alone
was
to
awaken us, 1 heard the sky
like a dead voice. And already the light,
forsaken from those dying at the windows,
touched my forehead and left
the mark of its eternal sleep on my hair.
Ahuman cry that could be heard, nothing–
only the snow - and they all were alive
to
weep behind that wall, silence
drank the land's tears in rivers.
Oh, Europe frozen to the heart
never again will thaw: alone, with the dead
that love her in eternity, she will be white
without boundaries, united by snow.
Translated from the Italian by Philip Parisi
Len Roberts
GIFT SHOP IN PEes
They paint yellow and red flowers
on the white vases,
with pale green leaves and stems,
some with dark blue centers,
three dark blue circles with X's.
The embroidery, too, and the small
carved walnut boxes,
flowers jutting out everywhere, not
one Jew on the train
to Auschwitz, which is not so far
from here,
