Poetry · At the Door of the House

At the Door of the House

A thousand women’s eyes

Riveted to the unrealisable

Scatter the wash-stand of the card-teller

Defiled marble of Carrara

On which she spreads

Color-picture maps of destiny

In the corner

Of an inconducive bed-room

“Impassioned

Doubly impassioned

Sad

You see these three cards

But here is the double Victory

And there is an elderly lady

Ill in whom you are concerned

This is the Devil

And these two skeletons

Are mortifications

You are going to make a journey

At evening about love

Here is the Man of the Heart

Turning his shoulders to a lady

Covered with tears about matrimony

At the door of your house

There is a letter about an affair

And a bed and a table

And this ace of spades turned upside-down

‘With respect’

Means that some man

Has well you know

Intentions little honorable

Here you are covered with tears

For a deception

The Man of the Heart

Is in thoughtfulness for a letter

He will make a journey at evening

And really lady

I should say

It will not be long before you see him

For there he is at the door of the house

And look

Here are you

And here is he

In life and thought

At the door of the house”

Muddled among the aniline brightness of the Tauro cards

The wheels with wings

The rows on rows of goblets

Passionate magenta blossoms

Hermits —bring luck⁠—

Moons Prison-fortresses

Cudgels

A man cut in half

Means a deception

And the nude woman

Stands for the world

Those eyes

Of Petronilla Lucia Letizia

Felicita

Filomena Amalia

Orsola Geltrude Caterina Delfina

Zita Bibiana Tarsilla

Eufemia,

Looking for the little love-tale

That never came true

At the door of the house