Rita Pacilio (Benevento 1963) is an author, poet, editorial collaborator and sociologist. She is a practitioner of literary criticism, meta-theatre, children’s literature, and vocal jazz. An editor of anthology works, she evalu- ates poetic texts and essays and managesthe section Opera prima’for La Vita Felice press. She heads the edito- rial brand RPlibriand is the President of the Associazione Arte e Saperi. She has created and runs theFestival della Poesia nella Cortesiain San Giorgio del Sannio. Among her recent poetry works are: Gli imperfetti sono gente bizzarra (La Vita Felice 2012) which has won several awards (among others, Laurentum 2013), and has been translated intoFrench (Les imparfaits sont des gens bizarres, L’Harmattan, 2016 Traduction en français par Giovanni Dotoli et Françoise Lenoir) and Arabic (for Uet Tunisi, translated byProf. Othman Ben Taleb); Quel grido raggrumato (La Vita Felice 2014); Il suono per obbedienza – poems on jazz (Marco Saya Edizioni 2015), Prima di andare (La Vita Felice, 2016). Among her works of fiction are: Non camminare scalzo (Edilet Edilazio Letteraria, 2011) and La principessa con i baffi (Scuderi Edizioni, 2015), a fairytale for children; Cantami una filastrocca is a textbook for Scuola dell’Infanzia (RPlibri, 2018). Her work has been translated into Greek, Ro- manian, French, Arabic, Spanish, Catalan, and Neapolitan. Her last work, L’amore casomai, a collection of short stories written in lyric prose, came out in March 2018.

I have seen them advancing, head-down
moving along like low-flying birds
holding in their hands the brown blood, the fingernails and
between their knees, the clandestine water.
I have seen them without God, without words
with dry tears of mournful rage
sobbing the amens of unclad breasts
to their deceased son.
I have seen them rapt, lost, lonely.
They bore the world’s thorns in their eyes
with decency and a prod in their heart.

Translated from Italian by Giorgio Mobili