Read a poem, online
Uploading this text
to Instagram,
Facebook
or some other
social network
I’m too old
to have heard of
so as to demonstrate
your good taste
and sense of humour
to ‘friends’
or ‘followers’
would be a violation
of copyright.
But go ahead
For what’s the point
of poems
if no one reads them?
© Daniel Stephens, 2019
For Richard, who commented at EasyItalianNews.com
“How about at least one article with some news
that’s positive and uplifting? Grazie mille”
Thanks to Europe’s internment camps in Libya
and to the efforts of the popularist / nationalist
Italian government coalition, this week
only insignificant numbers of migrants drowned
while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea
In another story, youth unemployment in Italy
is down to just 31.9%, from a 2014 peak of 43.3%
58.8% of all Italians are now in some form of employment
useful or otherwise
In politics, a further increase in IVA – a ‘value added tax’
on essentials like water and electricity –
which rose to 22% in 2013,
has not yet been confirmed for 2020
And now to the weather:
the Easter holiday weekend, which millions of Italian
spent at the coast or in the mountains,
was rated low-risk for exposure to solar radiation
so making sunglasses and protective creams unnecessary
© Daniel Stephens, 2019
You swell up my cheek
like an active vulcano spewing molten pus
making eating and drinking a pain
and waking me at night
to remind me of my mortality
The Internet informs me
you’ll probably depart
within two-to-three weeks and that
I should kindly not bug my doctor
until after this period has passed
If you persist after that, though
you could be a sign
of mouth cancer, in which case
I’ll skip the queue at the doctor’s office
and call the undertaker instead
© Daniel Stephens, 2019