The Bench

Each colorful dot a person
Life-vest orange the luckier ones
Packed tightly in a boat floating rudderless
Somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea
Rescued at last
Provided a safe
place to sit
lie, sleep.

Carrying their life
clothes, papers,
a spoonful of dirt from home,
wrapped and held to heart.
The memory of a parting,
the tearing of pages from a book.

They wear themselves down
Walking towards a mirage, a miracle
a beach, a boat, an empty bench.







Born in Perugia, Italy, a graduate of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart (Milan, Italy) and of Mills College (Oakland, CA), Simona Carini writes nonfiction and poetry and has been published in various venues, both in print and online. She lives in Northern California with her husband and works as an academic researcher in Medical Information Science. www.simonacarini.com

You can see more of her work in 4.2