What It Lacks

It’s the lyrical accent
that's lacking, the sharp snap
of expressionist dramaturgy,
the steadfast steer of the infested line

whose absence is bewailed 

pathetic, stupid are the subjects
your life is trivial and hopeless by now;
being poor, you suck up
raw chatter and companions

and pull them in

the nobleness of verse traded 
for a few threepenny tricks
rhyme the most humiliated
and rightly so

you're dead to sense too
under your pretty shroud of postmodernism 
I take you along in my daybook
as seed, fruit and offspring of mine

on regional trains and eatery tables


Maurizio Brancaleoni has had poetry and prose featured in numerous journals and anthologies. In February 2023 he published his first short story collection “New Parables and Other Oddities”. He has a bilingual blog where he posts literary gems, interviews and translations.