Winter's Lament 2009 (In Love Without Knowing) Poem by Liberatore Suffoletta

I am afraid of dead leaves
which reappear in fields
frozen with dew. I take
a navel orange to bed
Perhaps, I’ll sleep now
as soon as that which
is rustling so, so far
away, in my windows
subsides.
the wind
tossing so many
raindrops, so many
wet nights, alone among
so many barren stars.
At least I am on land
I am frightened asea

You sleep with necklaces,
Your jewels of twilight
Now you have left me
Alone on this road
You are so far away
My green bird weeps
In the purple vineyard
we will make no wine

I looked into your eyes
when I was a man and ready
Your hands brushed my skin
And you gave me a kiss

(Our hearts kept the same beat
Our night had the same stars)

My heart opened
Like the sky to a flower
Its petals desire
Its stamens dreams

Like the knight in the story
I sobbed in my gloves
For the golden princess
Who was wed to a king

(All hearts keep the same beat
All nights have the same stars)

away from your side,
In love, without knowing
Now I don’t know how your eyes
look, nor your hands, nor your hair
only the memory of the butterfly
of your kiss on my forgotten lips.