Camioncino
The blue and white tro lley
to
the Lido
traverses the avenue-the summer crowd
dressed, you know, in pretty colors-;
spreading a little song, the music of the spheres,
in the heart where its loving echo still lives.
Youngsters on bikes ride around this old man
like butterflies to the light. But you,
who have walked on the earth for so long,
allow yourself, gently,
to
be taken
by the movement of life!
Translated from the Italian by Averill Curdy
DAN CHIASSON
Visit
(Latin, "he saw," "he viewed")
Dying was not a change
of clothes, not a chance
to
wear pajamas. [ knew
his limbs were stiffening
for seven years, like one
of Dante's suicides kept
alive within a tree. He knew
each ache would harden
him at last, he watched
it happen
to
himse lf, and
watched me watching him.
He saw me from his window
