• As for me, I used to be a bird with a gentle white womb, someone cut my throat just for laughs, I don’t know. As for me, I used to be a great albatross and whirled over the seas. Someone put an end to my journey, without any charity in the tone of it. But even stretched out on the ground I sing for you now my songs of love.

    Alda Merini: As for me, I used to be a bird
with a gentle white womb,
someone cut my throat
 just for laughs,
 I don’t know.
As for me, I used to be a great albatross
and whirled over the seas.
Someone put an end to my journey,
without any charity in the tone of it.
But even stretched out on the ground
I sing for you now
my songs of love.
    Alda Merini (2016). “Love Lessons: Selected Poems of Alda Merini”, p.51, Princeton University Press