Michael Shepler

Pavese's Last Letter To Constance Dowling, In Blood, Unfinished

“Death will come and she will have your eyes” - Pavese

3 a.m.
Hour of the razor & the knife
Beneath the locked hotel room door
Pale light from the hall yellows anciently
Her telegram lies, crumpled on the table
An origami of pain, its message, senseless

He remembers her blue eyes & bad Italian
Remembers the celluloid memory he's been forced
To live with all week:

(Even now, 'Bitter Rice' plays down the street,
Her name in lights above the giant poster of Mangano's
Earthy thighs)

He remembers each day they'd had-
Reloading them like...