SIXTH SUNSET IN PÁLAIROS

Il-ħanina madonna
illallalalla
what on earth
what in sky
is going on

Kumbinazzjoni
coincidenza
eh eh eh
sometimes
kultant
nixtieeeq
I wish so

On Procida
la spiaggia della Lingua
our fourth, fifth, 
and sixth dawn
if I remember right
the sun rose precisely
out of the crater
of the Vesuvio

Et le voilà
our sixth dusk
here in Pálairos
the sun has just set 
precisely
into the peak
of the perfectly
conical mountain

Is that a cat head
or a heart
of light in cloud
το κεφάλι μιας γάτας
ή μια καρδιά
Qalmadonna
I did not put that there
I see what I want
as Rorschach knew well
but I did not want to
today

Sky, sun, cosmos
stop these signs
stop the alignments
stop the feeding of faith
in an impossible encounter
I have been much too noisy
and no eternity of silence
will be enough

Ieqfu
c’est assez
stop
basta
No more faithful desire
for a lettrice ideale
Oυρανός, ήλιο, kόσμος
for Christ’s sake
and my own
let 
me 
be

This has never been a question
of ελευθερία ή θάνατος
freedom or death
le le le
y no
καθόλου! όχι!
pas du tout
I need freedom from these signs
these silent
yet increasingly loud
messages
Freedom to live
and take books
and poems 
to the people
in peace

On Itháki
I beg you
no more shapes
no more configurations
Eventually Pablito and I
will sail to Ikaría
Once there
allow me to drown my
sign-seeking 
metaphor-greedy
ego
where Ἴκαρος fell
in the blue below
the black cat
in the rock

Allow me to begin afresh
with a love
that is hopeless
faithless
yet pure
Free from the poet’s
cancerian desire
A love as pure
as the freedom
of our ancestors
from their mortal 
bodily 
εγώ