“Satura” –

Reading through notes I’ve written during my stay here, I come across a poem I noted in a book called Midnight in Sicily by one Peter Robb:

History isn’t

the devastating bulldozer they say it is.

It leaves underpasses, crypts, holes

and hiding places. There are survivors.

History’s also benevolent: destroys

as much as it can; overdoing it, sure,

would be better, but history’s short

of news, doesn’t carry out all its vendettas.

History scrapes the bottom

like a drag net

with a few rips and more than one fish escapes.

Sometimes you meet the ectoplasm

of an escapee and he doesn’t seem particularly happy.

He doesn’t know he’s outside, nobody told him.

The others, in the bag, think

they’re freer than him.

Eugenio Montale, Satura

*

Note to self: Even if the ripped net is only an inner one, just bear that in mind and you’ll be OK.