SurVision Magazine
An
international online magazine that
publishes Surrealist poetry
in English.
Issue Six
PAOLO CASTRONUOVO
* * *
the sea is not always ready and waiting
we have to dig it out of the earth, invent it
wait for a proper afternoon to fill it up and then
watch the sunset;
the evening's gloom presses the sun into the water
and extinguishes its fire
the insomnia, which is night's life; the sleep, which is dead,
the darkness of the day
* * *
we must clear the winter
highlight the words containing light
open the window of conceit
to escape from under these coffin veils
shape our poems with more precision
because the cradle is a pointless vice
that glues our lips together
so no obscene words about life can come out
* * *
my skin needed light
so – having opened a window in the sky –
I've got a shave
the double-edge razor and the mirror have the same
outline in the morning
when the sebum and the saliencies become pastry
the face asks for the frost
of alum for hygiene
a peel must come off
to purify the month or the day
Translated from the Italian by Anatoly Kudryavitsky
Paolo Castronuovo is an Italian poet, novelist, and editor from Apulia. Among his poetry books, there are Labirints (2009); Barbed Wire (2010); Ambaradan (2014); Labials (2016), and The Insomnia of Bodies (2018). He is also the author of two novels: The Flame of Retarded Witches (2014) and The Dark Flow (2018).
