by Guido Monte
Multilingual Poetry
Translated by Adele Ward
angelo © 2014 Collage by Pippo Zimmardi |
(Swans - May 5, 2014)
pino is old, he moves slowly,
has a crutch,
and used to sleep below bridges
with mice, rubbish and cold wind
because at the hostel they told him
that his two dogs couldn't come in.
the two dogs still look him in the eye,
after nine years, and know to wait for him
each time outside accident and emergency
when he feels ill, and they wait
and understand in a flash that
he wouldn't abandon them,
not even this time.
if you stop him he asks for a cigarette.
and he tells you
that he doesn't understand priests
when they shout at him that his dogs
don't have a soul, and that we should
only think about people...
he says that he loves his dogs and that
only his two dogs truly love him.
he says that at the hostel, because of the dogs,
they slammed the door in his face
and will leave him to die,
but he will not leave his dog at the kennels,
they are now his family and that's final.
someone had put up a tent for him
under a bridge,
so he wouldn't feel the cold,
but the police seized it
and now he can no longer sleep there with the dogs.
these days they sleep in doorways, in the town centre,
or in summer on the benches in the "champagneria."
pino is now almost blind,
the dogs
have become his only living eyes
ses yeux vivants.
picture: angelo Collage by Pippo Zimmardi (2014).
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Guido Monte on Swans (with bio). Also, please check Guido's entry on Wikipedia. (back)