I wait for the night to attack me
beyond the frontier the silence is lurking
my step trembles
but I have only one step to take,
only one breath to shout.
Go on I tell myself, beyond the silence will be harsh colours
perhaps, perhaps coral mountains, but
no more silence, no more darkness surrounding
.
I leave my word to my tongue
my seed to Sara’s soft body
to her braids now sun in Tirana’s wind.
With each thought, with each regret
my heart, my soul, my blood know
I have only one step to take,
only one breath to shout.
Beyond the threshold my step will be changed,
my tongue will have new sister words,
my seed will bring to a new body
the wounds of war, the inheritance of pain,
but now that step is suspended between two lands,
origin and future, history and present.
I raise my leg, I stretch my knee
in the step with courage, the only lighthouse
in the dark night of the forced choice.
And now I shout, I shout my only breath
to the night of the desert that welcomes me
and makes me his, I shout till the shout fades
into breath, the same as always, mine.
Viktor Kubati, of Russian origin, was born in 1980 in Albania. He has been living in Italy for only a few years and he writes in Italian. His texts have been published in the magazines "Nae" and "Kuma" and on the site Absolutepoetry.org with a note by Luigi Nacci. He has written an as yet unpublished poetry collection, Finimenti di frumento.