Dream Canto 2: Climbing the outcrop, the calenture, bare feet
Language: English
Denim jeans tucked into work boots, partially
gripping the rocky outcrop; we slip and conjure
aspirations of bare feet, wrapped
about stone and root, the valley flooded
with water fresh as quartz.
A local wind sweeps the crest,
clouds of locusts high-tailing it to green fringes.
Bare feet have us possessed.
We try taking the summit with boots off.
Skin glows like morning, then a bloody sunset.
The locusts are angels and our feet their purpose.
Rare trees die as we profane the terrain.
Ants test any willing suspension of disbelief
our oxygenated lungs trick us into: inside our boots
damaged feet have no redress, no peace.
Note: the poem is preceded by the following:
“Già monavam su per li scaglion santi
Ed esser mi parea troppo più lieve
Che per lo pian non mi parea diavanti”
[We now were hunting up the sacred stairs,
And it appeared to me by far more easy
Than on the plain it had appeared before.]
lines 115-117, Canto 12, Purgatorio
Text Authorship:
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
Researcher for this page: Gordon Kerry
This text was added to the website: 2016-05-19
Line count: 15
Word count: 104