Zeno In Love

by Alessandro Carrera

Take the act of grasping for example.
It is a gesture
the enclosure of the soul does not explain.
No desire arises that decides
and puts a hand upon this thing or that
as if the hand, my hand or yours,
or the things themselves
were waiting for it to happen. It is rather
a birth of the world
in a hollow that closes itself,
an emptiness
recalled when it is filled.
Let me explain: the illusion of your breast
hollows this hand of mine that presses it,
and turns my taking into an illusion.

Translated by Michael Palma