Selected poems
My nonna
When I started playing Aussie Rules,
my nonna's face turned red.
I asked her what the problem was,
and this is what she said:
'An oval ball, an oval ground,
for men with oval heads.'
The ballerinas
They say that we are dreaming
while the working world awakes.
Imagination is the name
we give to our mistakes.
The shell collector
The shell collector dives into
the Adriatic Sea
and scoops the blue pearlescent shell
that god had meant for me.
Pierrot
His wretched life is deemed a pantomime
by those decreeing love to be a crime.
The Bay of Naples
The children from the other side
can only swim against the tide.
The azzurri kite
Unable to repair the severed ties
the azzurri kite is swept to foreign skies.
The night gardener
As Rocco waters his geranium
the moonlight dances on his cranium.
Leaving Venice
A disenfranchised gondolier
embarks to sail the Sea of Fear.
Papal nation
Italians are a people of integrity
who celebrate a celibate celebrity.
In praise of carbohydrates
It's well worth pointing out
that the night before a bout
Rocky Mattioli
ate a bowl of ravioli.
The salami-makers
They breed pigs for consumption;
they extract salt from the earth.
Blessed are the salami-makers
for they will inherit the girth.
This dreaming life
He tried to charm the stone-faced Mona Lisa,
but she chose to dwell in Leaning Towers of Pisa,
resultant pain pursued him in his prime,
and strangely thus began his life of rhyme
which led to life inside a freak museum;
and finally flung into a colosseum,
his feeble flesh was ripped up at the seam:
he was the dreamer, now he is the dream.
Damian Balassone's poems have appeared in over 100 publications, most notably in the New York Times. He is the author of three volumes of poetry: Prince of the Apple Towns, Daniel Yammacoona and A Day in the Lie (forthcoming).