Places. People. Names.

-the consequences of forgetting

Forgetting 
       Fabriano (Ancona)
         Fraschette (Frosinone)
           Farfa (Rieti)
Or
Remembering       
Can’t be        
      Casacalenda (Campobasso)
       Civitella del Tronto (Teramo)
        Citta Sant’Angelo (Pescara)
         Castel di Guido (Rome) 
          Colfiorito (Perugia)
           Corropoli (Teramo) 
             Casoli (Chieti)
              Chieti
Equivalent

I  recite the names
       Isernia (Campobasso)
    Isola del Gran Sasso (Teramo)
See the people

Whose lives were upended 
Rounded up
On any random day
Not unlike this day
         Notaresco (Chieti)
Gone without notice 
           Gioia del Colle (Bari) 
              Gonars (Udine)

Borne on the winds of time
      Bagno a Ripoli (Florence)
       Boiano (Campobasso)
        Buccari/ Bakar (Fiume)
Each 
Coming season
       Cairo Montenotte (Savona)             
        Chiesonuova (Padova) 
          Cighino/ Čiginj (Gorizia)         
            Campagna (Salerno)
A new shoot reaching 
         Arbe/ Rab (Fiume)
Upwards 
         Urbisaglia (Macerata)
Seeds sprouting
         Sassoferrato (Ancona)
East

West 
Everywhere

Asking
         Ariana Irpino (Avellino)
Remembrance only
         Renicci (Arezzo)
Each one

All
         Agnone (Campobasso)
Long to
        Laurana/ Lovran (Fiume)
Live freely
         Lipari (Messina)

Harassed
Uprooted
Moved place to place
       Montechiarugolo (Parma)
Again and again
None are safe
       Nereto (Teramo)

Every
Vile 
     Vinchiaturo (Campobasso)
Explanation 
Reminds
Young 
Old 
Never-ending
Example after example

Don’t 
Ever 
Sleep
       Scipione (Parma)
Even
Rulers, foolishly,
Vanity showing 
       Ventotene (Littoria)
         Visco (Udine)
Expected
Safety  but but but

Remember 
Every
Single
Person
            Pollenza (Macerata) 
          Petriolo (Macerata)
        Pisticci (Matera) 
      Ponza (Littoria)
Eventually
Confused
       Civitella della Chiana   
                                     (Arezzo)
Today with always
       Treia (Macerata)
        Tremiti (Foggia)
          Tribussa Inferiore/ Dolenja    
                          Trebuša (Gorizia)

Simple
       Solofra (Avellino)
Truths
Are eternally true
       Alberobello (Bari) 
Yet we forget to remember

How very
Unkind
       Ustica (Palermo) 
Men can be
       Monteforte Irpino (Avellino)     
         Montalbano-Rovezzano
                                      (Florence) 
     Manfredonia (Foggia) 
And we repeat and repeat this
Need to control

       Monigo (Treviso)
        Melada/Molat (Zara) 
         Mamula (Cattaro) 
           Prevlaka (Cattaro) 
            Zlarino/ Zlarin (Zara)
  Porto Re/ Kraljevica (Nezavisna   
     Država Hrvtaska (NDH))

Lovely sounds that trip 
off the tongue
in many languages
all around the world 
even if we don’t know the meaning
from the past

Always different
ever the same

We have seen this before
we know how it all ends
it never ends well

not for the perpetrators
whatever color shirts they wear

certainly not for the victims
haphazard clothes marking them as random participants 
strays as it were
caught up in the net of a 
vicious history 
that is not yet past

not even for the memory-
molders of history
or those who follow
or those who simply stand 
off to the side 
quietly 
meekly
not knowing what to do
or how not to be next