Two in Tropic Twilight

If I once quickened among the whips
that thrilled at a pebble in silt,

I need to ask, "Is it we who shine in the dark?"
My phantom hand can almost free

the strand of night between us. As a moon
arcs white in the mangrove of my brain,

a black water bird climbs the belvedere
for spiders. You say I've forgotten how

to forget? Will you teach me again?
I don't want you to hold me against you

like so much pain. Wrench me from the web
of everything I've ever loved and clung to

because salt flickers here in your lashes,
our day in the lake as vague as an embryo's dream.

Like wick-sparks in sinking tins, tadpoles
gutter out, because I don't care

how it all began. Forget it. No, don't cry,
insects. Even the stars lose their lovers.

translated by Luigi Bonaffini

Copyright © 2003 Stephen Massimilla, Luigi Bonaffini All rights reserved
from In a Different Light
Bordighera Press
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission