FEDERICA SANTINI
★ ★ ★ ★
POETRY
Substrata
There is a well at the end of the well a lake
under the lake a sea of glass at the bottom
of the glass towers of ice amassed
beneath soaring walls of ice
At the bottom of the glass you,
stilted figure, patiently wait:
bee encapsulated in amber,
amber in layers of carbon, carbon
reverting to life
You are the small crack
in the ice, the covert
spring coaxing a mad
rush to the surface
Federica Santini lives in Atlanta, U.S.A., and teaches at Kennesaw State University. She holds an M.A. from the University of Siena, Italy, and a Ph.D. from UCLA, where she studied poetry and literary translation. A literary critic, poet, and translator, her work has been published in over forty journals and volumes. She is a 2021 Desert Nights, Rising Stars Writers Conference Fellow (Arizona State University).
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Excellent poem. I enjoyed the layering technique you use in the poem, and the concision–esp in the final stanza. I look forward to seeing more of your work.