The
Unexpected Answer
(after René Magritte's La
Réponse Imprévue)
All time is spare.
In the slow decay of light
fading to parasitic walls,
a door closing from the inside
completes a small space
and sets in motion the dark thought
that unsettles the house
and causes the familiar surfaces of matter to shatter.
After enduring the most troublesome things
in my mind while inside there,
I now find relief in something
as simple as placing my hand
on the knob and opening the door,
which displaces shadows across the floor
where illuminated bits of a liberated self scatter.
Stephen Campiglio is from Massachusetts. His poetry and
translations appear in Aji Magazine,
DASH Literary Journal, Glimpse, Gradiva (Florence, Italy), Italian Americana, Journal of Italian
Translation, The Octotillo Review, Pensive, Sangam Literary Review,
SLAB, Steam Ticket, Stand (Leeds, England), VIA: Voices in Italian Americana, and
The Woven Tale Press Magazine.
He co-edited and contributed to Noh
Place Poetry Anthology (Lost Valley Press, Hardwick, MA, 2022)
and has published a chapbook entitled Verbal
Clouds through Various Magritte Skies (Cy Gist Press, 2014).