If Life Were Cala della Disa

Published on ‘Mediterranean Poetry’, a literary journal dedicated to poetry about the Mediterranean world

If Life Were Cala della Disa

If life were the cove 

the creek I discovered 

along the jagged coast 

of ancient Sicily 

I would call it home

I would lie down 

on blankets of white

fragments of corals and shells,

on rocks munched by the sea

murmuring through their holes

with the voice of crabs, urchins, mussels.

I would 

listen.

My hair flowing loose

dry like Sirocco chiming,  carrying

alchemy of smells: almond, ash, 

figs, ferns, wild fennel. 

I would swim 

in its motherly waters

a crystal ball through which I’d see 

my life, my past unroll

like an undecipherable Chinese scroll.

The sounds of the sea

the waves docking against the walls

of the caves

would keep me awake.

The blue that meets the blue, the emerald,

the lightest hue,

would tell me it’s time to view the world 

in colours.

Tasting the salt on my lips and limbs,

thirst and hunger growing

with my wish to hug the ocean

cross the horizon.

I would dig then

drink from the mouth of a spring

somewhere on the hill ‘lì sopra’, above,

nourished by blobs of berries 

hidden in bramble bushes  

that would burst in my mouth.

My body at last exhausted, satisfied,

would rest  inside the caravanserai 

cast in the clouds

while the swallows as they glide

the seagulls in their flights 

would lure me — teach me

how to dive deeper 

read the currents

ride the waves

adapt to the sea, the tides.