Multitude Child (for Siena)
What do parents pass on to their kids if not all their wounds?, recita un verso delle poesia di Gbenga Adesina che ne illumina subito il senso: l’irrompere dell’istante in cui la vita quotidiana, qui rappresentata nel frangente ludico di una festa, fa inaspettatamente naufragio e schiude l’oscurità che l’avvolge, l’abisso su cui è sospeso il suo ordine apparente.
There is an antithesis in this bay of eyes.
I find myself alone in the inner life of this house
But I swear we could be four hundred.
A voice says: come to the water, multitude child, come to the water.
I’m trying to listen to what love my skin might be saying to me.
There is a sprawl inside my chest. I want you to come inside.
At a party, I watched a lady slice through air like fish in the unsolid
Love of water. I thought of her. How she moves and moves her ache with her.
Later she tells me of the hole her mother gave her as a gift.
What do parents pass on to their kids if not all of their wounds?
Mine wrapped their scars in shawls, said here, here, all of our hearts
But this stereo knows a thing or two about plurality. The dark science of it.
Isn’t that Coltrane? There is a man dying inside his voice tonight. I’m all sighs
Now. O lord, I’m all sighs now. Why do my legs move like a definition missing
From a book of itself? I am my Father when I’m dancing.
Gbenga Adesina è un poeta e scrittore nigeriano vincitore del Brunel African Poetry Prize. Con la poesia “How To Paint A Girl”, è stato anche autore selezionato dal New York Times. Ha ricevuto numerose borse di studio presso prestigiose università statunitensi ed è autore di libri di poesia tra cui: Painter of Water (APBF and Akashic Books, NY) e Holy Bodies, finalista al Sillerman First Book Prize (2017). Altre opere sono presenti in numerose riviste internazionali.
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