The trifle covering your shoulders

“the light globes, the slow Templar

globes cumulus clouds of winds

are not me”.

(F. Fortini)

 

 

The trifle covering your shoulders

that rag of sun and light that ran

the dismasted and crushed will,

the fingers of who gave to your fingers

short heat, the winter vertex

of nickeled hospital beds

and, black than other blacks,

the black midnight inside the sleep

and your trembled cent

of soul, the fire of fever making

every minute a battle of Saint Lazarus

a fall every pause of blood,

that trifle: that covered your shoulder

 

you were not you.

 

 

Pierluigi Cappello (Italy, 1967 – 2017 ), La misura dell’erba, Ignazio Maria Gallino Editore, Milano 1998, 2000 (translation by Slow Words)

 

To buy the book (Italian language): https://www.ibs.it/misura-dell-erba-libro-pierluigi-cappello/e/9788887196146

 

Cover: Tacita Dean, When I first raised the tempest, No 17599, blackboard drawing (detail), on show at Tempest, TMAG (Tasmanian Modern Art Gallery) until November 20, 2016 (ph. Diana Marrone)

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