POEM: "Per Una Selva Oscura"

Per Una Selva Oscura


                            Ma tu perché ritorni a tanta noia?
                            perché non sali il dilettoso monte                           
                            ch'è principio e cagion di tutta gioia?
                                          

My friend wrote a poem about
an unkind remark she once heard
and a deep wound took hold of
this compassionate old friend
nel mezzo del cammin to the laundry
but now I'm a dozen countries away
and so many years have passed us both
trying to make sense of unfairness
wrong-headed intemperate thinking
only I get nowhere remembering
the heavy blood in the awful words
that we do our damndest to let go of
the shock they caused the tears and pain
or the other acts that held a bigger knife
but in the dark woods of the tongue
in the wilful distance from the heart
just seven years after the scattering
of all the poetry washed under
looking for ever better tidings
one nation under a blessèd sky
it's now moved on, fuck that guy.


© 2012 Rob Schackne