← v5n1, Spring 2006
Poetry · Volume 5, Number 1

Light

Illuminated, “un semplice lume,” you, Dante, once lost,

Off “la diritta via,” then found, now needed, millennium

Of continuing inferno, torture, lies, lies, oh lies, “malvagio

Traditor,” traitors, mass graves, traitors, traitors, bloated

Rivers, language emptied of all meaning, rank deception,

Heated sour air, bombs bursting bursting bursting,

Betrayers chewed in each, “ogni bocca,” hellish mouth,

But, dead, still get around, H., baked organs bottled,

Juggled in Kremlin, “one-ball business,” M., bald head

Pounded like punching bag, strung up, dug up, boxed,

Bent double, planted again, again, S., too, laid stiffly out,

Then, Moscow night, hurried out of sight, not out of mind,

“Una selva oscura” indeed, and every day keeps coming

Down, there, here, pot-belly Führer, porcine Duce, weird

Sisters at their brewing, need you now, maestro, now,

Reshape penumbra, now, into lasting shape of light.