Massimiliano Nastri was born in 1973 in Italy. He works as a teaching assistant at Queen’s University, where he is revising a book about the interwar collapse of centre-right parties and the rise of fascism. Writing poems in English is a ‘form’ of freedom that enables him to measure the distance between what he thinks and how he feels. His work has been published in The Honest Ulsterman (online, 2022). Cyphers (November 2022), Ink Sweat and Tears (online, March 2023), and Southword (forthcoming in 2023).
Falck Vulcano Industry. Desert – Sesto San Giovanni, Milano.
What roots can grow from ruins or
Are these blind leaves the last hug the one that was destined to last
Over what had been full of meaning
Labour separating the emptiness of before from that of now
Rusty chains vibrating to no Sybil
After all a point of view does matter
As nothing as the machineries it looks at
Honestly this story has been a delusion not a surprise
Voices and muscles and beats and thoughts worthy of this silence
So one must admit the veracity of this conclusion
At close quarter better better not better shut down this mistake
But whatever the collapse of these projects they were
The strife was being alive
The future though is no longer what it used to be
© Massimiliano Nastri