Galaxies

     <sup>because this planet's radiance overcame me
                             —Dante, Paradiso, IX, 33

Translation from Historiae by Antonella Anedda</sup>

I dreamt that I saw the earth from far away, 
I saw fields, the moon, the undertow
and how each tide undermines earth with water. 
I wanted to reach Saturn, my planet
of fire and lead, so I was nourishing melancholy. 
I was spinning in the fog looking for you and you were below
among the living. You loved who I was not and would never be
yet there in the void, in that sidereal light I saw 
the autumn spinning the leaves with verdigris, 
I was hearing the thud of the wind upon a bedsheet
as one voice was calling another
and this one responded as something in the evening 
that was approaching with the shadow that fell on the chairs.

Already there in glory, already overcome by the radiance between planets, 
and yet I was starving myself with envy for life.