Poems from Lerici: Like an Expert Hand

Now that it’s evening and the cicadas have stopped,
now that the fly has been replaced by the mosquito
and there is a slight coolness that makes the air mild,
even now it is still your voice
that touches me inside. Like an expert hand that knows
where
and how
to touch.

Paolo Bertolani
translated by Massimo Bacigalupo and Jennifer Compton