He told me amidst the cheers

that his grandpa died.

I’ve never seen you cry

you looked younger

I wish we could have talked

some more

She muttered

a prophecy

in the midst of three thousand

screaming

men and women

fumes of sweat and beer and dance

it’s obvious that

no one listened

it was truth

like you never heard it

battered by the noise

of life going on

To you who might read this

on plain white, standard font

distilled from a thousand sources

I wish we were drinking together now

and posing unpleasant, but necessary

questions purely out of

friendship

I wish this could reach you the way it’s supposed to

.

I reach out to the world

as if it were my only hope

foolish

I hated you

for your promises

fair enough though

since they were all false

I guess we can get along

just fine

today.

For some reason

I keep losing your love letters one

by one

as if you were dissolving

into something

that might

have

happened

but I know you were there

it was 20

09, I think, Nuremberg, right?

Christina

let me know it

again

Nothing is

ever equal

you blurt out a phrase that’s deep in your belly

it’s been there for how many years?

How many drunken nights? Playing the friend?

Playing the one who understands?

It belches a question, a mocking overtone

sounds like an invite to leave

why do you think you know me?

How do you think it feels?

To be put in a shelf like this

nothing is ever equal

as long as we have our prejudice, and

All the effort I put in

anonymity

is wasted on a drunken night out

the spelling of your words dissolve months

of work

how many days have you waited

to ask me this?

Sometimes it feels more lonely here

than the New England grounds

where to be a number

is to be a challenge

is to be a difference

is to be whatever

you don’t expect me

to be.

Tell me where to find

it

where to grab a bottle of steadfastness

and lie in this corner I built

until it crumbles

under my weight

How can a city

a country

like this

be crumbling

?

I guess

that the flower really is at the peak of its beauty

when it’s just about to rot.

Mass,the veil lifted and all that,

white celebration and they do

what they need to do.

Trouble following their lines, the harpist

plays g sharp, the cello an a,

unintentional dissonance

an infinity between

these two church pews-

your untied hair..

it’s ravens, it’s stone on my shoulders,

one look and your weight

is on me

all mind, your body still undefined

sitting, the untied ravens and the spiral eyes,

a little oracle.

…

Later,

a name trickles upon the dancefloor,

v, a, l, n, t…

they don’t all find the way to my ear

your body is the knife, defined and strict

tonight I’m in control, when you leave

I’ll be in control.

Wish I could rephrase

it all, put a blazer and a tie

around the idiotic words I had to tell you

and let them pretend to be something else, like

so many others.

But they’re in you now, Marie,

soaked in deeply

all tangled up in misunderstanding

beautifully checkered by my awkward pauses

a place within you, oh, by now, a space you walk on

without my permission, Marie

the way you smiled, you knew it all

you knew, 

Marie.

The barman calls it quits,

it feels early in my bones

the sea salt’s everywhere

not used to this anymore

I’m a stranger tonight, I have

stranger’s eyes tonight

when you’re struggling to decipher me

remember I can’t really give you the key.

I don’t care about your face

give me your words.

She had spider’s legs hidden underneath

the black tights, the white skirt far

too short, and the black (again!) hair

waves of perfume and irresponsibility

she made me lose it as

she wrapped around me and consumed me

and left before dawn was done.

Too fierce, too quick

her face a wash in my memory

I keep trying to recapture, recollect, give

her an identity..

oh but those legs

lifted up, very clear, dead on

in this foggy

and hungover mind.

Vorrei poterti imprestare

quel ricordo che ho di te, tanto per

farti sentire di nuovo bella, quando

sei giu’ per colpa sua. Sarebbe

solo un po’ di ricordo, mica tutto

solo meta’ di quella pelle liscia

abbronzata, della forza

con cui mi hai stretto il braccio

mentre pioveva a Norimberga.

Mica tutta, solo

parte di quella frase che mi hai detto, e meta’

di quel bacio appena incontrati,

mi ha un po’ spiazzato, lo ammetto

imprestarti solo un poco delle ore in me

due, o tre

ho tanto e tu hai niente

e mi e’ sempre spiaciuto

ho sempre solo risposto

e mai dedicato

quindi se vuoi

prendili questi ricordi in me

per un po’