Natalli Amato
Natalli Amato is a poet, fiction writer, and journalist from upstate New York. She is the author of the poetry collection On a Windless Night and Burning Barrel (forthcoming from Finishing Line Press). Natalli was awarded the Edwin T. Whiffen Poetry Prize as an undergraduate at Syracuse University. Her poetry is deeply inspired by the North Country region of New York State where she grew up and continues to be drawn to. Her poetry has appeared in several anthologies and numerous literary publications, and she is a poetry reader for Carve Magazine. You can read her work at www.natalliamato.com
Describe a Life
To say it is a life marked by loss
would be untrue.
The keys, our youth,
a father, a mother –
don’t these departures come
for us all? And so often
that they cannot be described
as exceptional?
You mow the lawn every Tuesday morning.
Would you say it was a life
marked by the sound of a John Deere motor?
Well what, then, would be true?
It is a life
marked by the azure trail
of Comet Neowise –
and how we were there
naked and alone together
our heads bobbing moons
in black water,
one in 6,766 years.
Sheila-Na-Gig online 