3

Trabocca la rubrica, nomi vani,
una folla di numeri inattivi
mobili cellulari interurbani
di volto e di sembianza e d’occhi privi, 
serbate prede, incontri promettenti 
fermati in morte voci prevedibili
d’apparati perennemente spenti
d’utenti assenti sempre irraggiungibili. 
Sintetica s’allarga la memoria, 
intorno a me si stringe lo schedario. 
La solita dannata e mesta storia:
finito lo spettacolo, sipario: 
          l’attore dopo l’ultima intervista 
          solo, senza alcun coprotagonista.

                           ★ ★ ★

My contact list brims over with useless
names, throngs of numbers out of service,
mobile phones, long-distance cells
lacking faces and features and eyes,
saved-up prey, promising hookups
dead in their tracks, voices foregone
from gizmos eternally switched off
by absent users, always unreachable.
As artificial memory extends,
its filing systems hem me in. 
The usual blasted, rueful tale:
show’s over, the curtain falls. 
          After his final interview, the actor’s
          all alone; his co-stars have vamoosed.

Marco Simonelli & Hoyt Rogers | Will, Sonnet 4
Contents | Mudlark No. 73 (2022)