ODE TO SERENA BUFALINO

O ether-breathing patron saint of those
whom Christ once called the least of all of us.
O master of turn-arounds in ones who face
the starless, moonless night of destinies
they'd salamander-hide like deformities --
O you who stand for those who fall as nameless
as the leaves -- you raise their integrities like suns
and make them monikered as certain stars,
your love conditionless as perfect stillness,
you sanctified with oil of olive trees
fostered by the Seraphim who bless
these eternal groves so steadfastly, and press 
the sacred extract for those foreheads of
the few diamonding souls the Almighty chose
for unfathomable missions, like yours.
And when all those you thoroughly do tend --
tend as Magdalene did the Saviour's feet,
which she wet with her tears and cleansed
with her hair -- lie on their surrounded death-
beds, they'll smile widely with memories of you --
they blinking the supernovae of their eyes,
eyes you made see through the monocles of their souls,
souls you dignified into beaming constellations
warming those your essential essence never 
denies, but toward whom beams back: 'yes! yes! yes!'

‘Marc di Saverio hails from Hamilton, Canada. His poems and translations have appeared internationally. In Issue 92 of Canadian Notes and Queries Magazine, di Saverio’s Sanatorium Songs (2013) was hailed as “the greatest poetry debut from the past 25 years.” In 2016 he received the City of Hamilton Arts Award for Best Emerging Writer. In 2017, his work was broadcasted on BBC Radio 3, his debut became a bestseller in both Canada and the United States, and he published his first book of translations: Ship of Gold: The Essential Poems of Emile Nelligan (Vehicule Press). On May 1st, 2020, Guernica Editions published Crito Di Volta. Di Saverio studied English and History at McMaster University, but never took a degree, due to illness. He is the son of Carlo Di Saverio, the scholar and teacher who studied Linguistics and Languages at University of Toronto (M.A.,1981). Di Saverio’s poem, “Weekend Pass”, was adapted into the movie, CANDY — directed by Cassandra Cronenberg, and starring the author himself — which was selected to the Toronto International Film Festival in 2013.

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