Two Poems by Alessandro Russo - Italy

THE CURVES OF THE EYES

After a while I knew

that I would have still your eyes

staring at mine, filling them up,

making them beautiful.

I stopped everything, shaped all the stairs

that ran up

the spells of the expectation,

and on each step, and at each flight turn

there was a thought of us

that arrived or came back.

I didn’t see anymore, over, above or under

your eyes, and thought

that everyone should gaze at them

I knew that the stairs can go down too

and that those eyes could hurt,

but I couldn’t imagine that, also I

could have stared with the same eyes,

stare at you with the same eyes.

□

SHARPENING THE CROSS AND CRESCENT MOON

Two brothers were waiting

impatiently the moon

with their shoulders leaned against a tree

that seemed to broaden its arms

to shape a cross with its branches.

The tree started strip of green

laying bare an omen,

right there where once

was driven a wooden pole

with another pole crossed on top

as a foul crown

The moon arrived

but only half,

and the younger brother

caught it like a scimitar,

pointing at the other

who meanwhile uprooted

the tree, seized it

like a sword

The blood of that night

became mulch

that still is nourishing

what everybody calls

the Holy Land.

□

Alessandro Russo was born in Castellammare di Stabia (Naples - Italy). He is the author of several books of poetry and has been awarded many national and international poetry awards.

[Prepared by Angela Kosta, Executive Director of MIRIADE Magazine, Academic, journalist, writer, poet, essayist, literary critic, editor, translator]