Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


THE TRANSPARENT LIFE by LUIGI FONTANELLA

First Line: THE CITY OPENS ITS STREETS

the city opens its streets,
bicycles go by riderless,
a woman's face in a window
appears then vanishes,
shop-windows offer fetishes
for every season,
lives turning,
a slender agile couple dances
in the deserted piazza,
the race men run,
the hairy woods shivering
against the grain of light,
footsteps on leaves
and furrows of stiff mud,
avenue of autumn
royal coach
rain of dew
and paper --
the transparent life.


Used by permission of Story Line Press.



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