Versione Italiana | Nota biografica | Versione lettura |
Cast out we were
into the dark sailing away
not towards, but together,
she exactly filled
the empty cradle of my arm, craving
a damp-warm weight her need
only I could meet,
the dark vague depths
of eyes, the desperate searching,
the shell-clenched fists,
rosy, uncurling shrimps
grasping my breast, tentative
lips and then that clamping pull
of life from me to her fulfilled
our mutual need, each to each
bound, in perfection,
the circle closed.
When did I see she was not
there, her small weight gone
limp, suspended, all warmth
drained, the searching ended?
She no longer needed me,
while I was left longing,
my arm circling,
empty. Chill terror clamped
my breast and suddenly I knew:
they would come
and cast her down to depths
infinite she would drop
down never to be found,
her tiny body unfurling
waving anemone limbs
forever searching forever
exposed.
No! This could not be! I,
her mother, would provide
for her a warm covering,
decent sand and place,
a collocation of the mind,
for both our needs together
a final time, before I said
once more -- good-night,
good-night, my heart's own dear,
and left her there.
Note: For burying her baby daughter on the beach of Apulia, where she had landed after escaping from Kosovo, this Roma mother was arrested by the Italian police and charged with illicit concealment of a corpse