——-—for Primo Levi, whose name is still missing from the elements

 

Speak not of the end in Turin. The long, long way back to Turin.
——No—thank you, son of Ceres, mischievous mischmetal, earth-ample,
———dissenter, dead center, key to undying in The Periodic Table, you,

————-——from mysterious cylinder hard & gray
——————-—to flint scraped by makeshift blade in barrack
———————-—bunks as others slept half-sunk, fitful, beyond pain,

all longing betrayed—you, under bloom of blanket jagged & stained, sallow sunbirds
——chirped & flared little rawboned wings—when finally morning, it’d never be
———the same, bloodful sky, January’s spring, as Soviet dawn & scarlet

——fever        became       a strange grace—

———& dear Alberto staggering toward the unway, cursed cold of another’s profane—
———–while you, Primo, the song & science of what remains—so I think I’ll stay

——————-—to light eternal your name—even if they’d take us away—we live on,
———————-—curious, igniting, ricochet, even if—just for one more day—

 

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Rosebud Ben-Oni is the author of The Last Great Adventure Is You and If This Is the Age We End Discovery (both from Alice James). Her work has been commissioned by Paramount, the National September 11 Memorial, and the Holocaust Memorial.

 

Image: Peter Yost. Unsplash, 2019.