Clinica dell’abbandono

by Alda Merini

I am waiting for you and each day
I slowly fade away
and I have forgotten your face.
People ask me if my despair
equals your absence
no, it is something more:
it is a gesture of fixed death
that I can’t offer you as a present.

Alda Merini
Clinica dell’abbandono
Giulio Einaudi Editore