We haven’t moved for ten minutes.
Vietato attraversare i binari
Do not cross the railway lines
I read the signs
Back and forth,
While the soft music
Of the melodious background noise
Explodes like a punch
In my face as the Frecciarossa train
Knocks me out at 200 mph
Of my torpid contemplation of the signs.
We’re finally leaving.
The trees and houses rushing by
Touch the back of my head.
Birds on wires.
We are accelerating like the World
I’m heading South,
Others sometimes paint the town red,
Swallowing dust in the depth of the plain.
An angry hunger rises,
The companion of wandering.
The Sun is kinder in the South,
—Day after day I feel at ease
Among people living, speaking in a craze,
Who never yawn, only talk
And live, and burn like church candles,
Their smoke engulfing the blue sky,
Fading away like reality
Poems by Susanna Peremartoni 