And he fee ls lost
-is it still me?-
from one to the other
of those astonishing streets
drawn into a net
of real and imagined sufferings
he recalls-some he sees again
with bated breath
between memory and sense–
people with whom he kind led life
and brought death there
and put eternity in those rooms.
Time he feels in his flesh
full and emptied of them
in those high houses
in him all is equal
yet he does not excl ude them,
glories
in all that transiency
and humbly glorifies it. City. Towers.
Translated from the Italian by Thomas Day
PATRICK GILMORE
The Invention of the Parachute
One day Lenormand showed his design
with two parasols : as he leapt from a tree
two girls, sunstruck, looked on. One asked
if one might snag on a sprig
as, steering from his beech lair,
he felt air pucker and pummel
into his intricate canopies.
He held them so closely, their flounces lapped
