SUMMERTIME

by Alessandro Manzetti

inspired by Wolfe’s Look Homeward, Angel

Somewhere in August 1915.

O lost, and by the wind grieved ghost,

come back again, get close

to the rest of your bombed family.

And you, Angel, look the other way

and hold your nose.

Summer, with its hungry flies

is entering the trenches,

dreadful as its blurred horizons,

continually shifting to expose

the front line of Hell

ignited by a black sun.

O lost, and by bullets riddled ghost,

collect the hundreds of eyes

of your new brothers,

roll them around like marbles;

put them together, make a necklace

and wear it now.

You’re so beautiful.

You will see in the distance

hundreds of empty houses,

hidden doors, and all the faces

they have loved and lost.