(Salmon)

Written by Luca Benassi

Translated from the Italian by the poet

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Italy

Salmon are to be waylaid

at the bottleneck of the river mouth,

when they are scared, cramming the water;

you have to let the net down where

the surface ripples with fins,

gills fumbling the desire

that doubles the passage of new

generations. That is the moment

to shoot the net, to stretch tight

the noose to the throat, the sharp spear.

At the metro exit we are

oblivious salmon to the slaughter

Luca Benassi was born in 1976 in Rome. He is poet, essayist, journalist and translator. He published 5 poetry books and 4 poetry anthologies in Spanish, Japanese, Serbian, and Macedonian. His poems have been translated into English, Romanian, Turkish, Mongolian, Chinese and Korean. He published a book of essays on Italian contemporary poetry in 2010.