[spoon in sleep, the body] by Franca Mancinelli, translated by Allison Grimaldi Donahue


 
 
spoon in sleep, the body
collects the night. Swarms awaken
buried in the chest, spread
wings. How many animals migrate in us
passing through our heart, resting
in the curve of our hip, between the branches
of our ribs, how many
would rather not be us,
not to be entangled in
human frame.
 
 
 
Franca Mancinelli has published two books of poetry, Mala kruna (Manni, 2007) and Pasta madre (Mother dough) (Nino Aragno, 2013). A preview of her second book of poetry has appeared in Nuovi poeti italiani 6, edited by Giovanna Rosadini (Einaudi, 2012). Her works are featured in several anthologies, including XIII Quaderno italiano di poesia contemporanea, curated by Franco Buffoni (Marcos y Marcos, 2017). She contributes as a critic to Poesia and other literary journal and reviews. She is an editor for the literary review Smerilliana, the poetry almanac Argo – annuario di poesia and the blog and publishing project Interno poesia. Her texts have been translated into English, Spanish, Arabic, Slovenian. She is currently working on a book of short prose.

Allison Grimaldi Donahue is a writer and translator whose work has appeared in places like Words Without Borders, Electric Literature, Gramma Poetry, The Brooklyn Rail, Dead King Magazine, Cosmonauts Avenue and VersoDove. In 2016 she published her chapbook Body to Mineral with Publication Studio Vancouver. She has been an NEA Fellow at the Vermont Studio Center and a Bakeless Fellow at the Bread Loaf Translators’ Conference. She is fiction editor at Queen Mob’s Teahouse and associate editor for translations at Anomaly. She is a PhD candidate at the European Graduate School and teaches writing at John Cabot University, Rome. She is currently working on a book of essays.