STILL STRUCTURES
by Cristina Rizzuto
Atop the giant chess board a masquerade;
here, immortal animals play by night
amidst an architecture of static dreams.
The silkworm transforms to become eagle, snail, seashell.
Their ceramic signs mark the board above our heads –
enter the forest, leave the tower, find the dragon.
Pawn takes pawn, knight tramples queen
owls and wolves battle panthers.
And by day, life continues inside the fairy-tale –
café patios fill with people, the sun casts shadows
over terracotta rooftops, time drifts by,
fields of sunflowers blacken, die –
as though outside worlds do not exist.
Only the dying entities move,
in them the possibility of tomorrow
as revolution sounds our names.
Stoic, they wait for us to move on,
for the next group to take our place,
for the moon to come out again.