FUGACITY
(Poem extracted from “Lo Fugaz, Lo Perdurable” by Sonia Viola)
I drew illusions
And childhood dolls,
I wrote poems
Of teenager love,
I stopped at the corner
To look at the stars,
I found a friend,
A cloud, a jasmine;
And I lived every instant
The march towards a destiny
Towards a time
Of unfinished spell.
The erratic stars,
The castles, illusions,
Those Chinese shadows
Of the magic lantern,
That moonbeam
Perched on my pillow,
Those dancing gestures
Of my harlequin;
The pink Dress
And the coquetry
In front of the mirror
Were leading my life
To a triumphant appointment
With the smiling destiny
Which was waiting for me.
Suddenly the days
Looked alike,
The stone was smooth,
The birds silent
Irrevocably
They quivered in the branch;
There were figureheads
Lifeless, shred to pieces,
Bumps and storms
Music without chords,
Sloughed roots.
You had to walk forward lunging,
Bite savagely
With unmeasured force.
Not to be brought down
By the melancholy
And the grieving soul.
Leave between shadows
The end of the thread,
Pretending to be the buffoon
Of a ghost court
And then I realized
That time must be conquered,
That time wasted
Is time of sadness,
Time that is fleeting
It is lost in the infinite;
When the rose falls
Memories are erased;
Irremediably,
Fast, extemporaneous
Time has already passed …
