«Woods and starry solitudes»

Once upon a time there was,
between the westernmost
Bologna’s border and the country,

a vacant lot

about seven hundred yards long
and two hundred yards wide.

Looking towards the setting sun, it was
the favorite playground for children

—a land beyond the world,

snow-covered and blue-shaded

by firs in winter,

with wastes, wilds and a long low ravine,

grasslands and moorlands and downs,

short green grass growing on hillocks of grey grave’s ground,

thickets and groves, jungles and forests,

swamps and canebrakes and leaves-covered dusty trails,

hidden haunts and secluded shanties and a dark nethergate,

meadows and greenswards which could take the shapes

of streams and seas,

though there was no sea down there.

Not faraway
to the westward, however,
there did flow a river

along which ran

a long low asphalt breastwork
in whose crevices weeds grew

—as the weeds of otherness might grow
in the crevices of eversame’s walls—

And up there a dark cloaked figure
is looking sadly sideways down
along the miry side of the River Rhine,
where memories may fleetingly abide
and may be seen for a little while
before they scatter and fade away…

… … …

Sometimes, for a fleeting span, they may stand afloat on the dull sluggish waters …

Adventure Crossway

#Adventure