Sono un invisibile

I am a stray, an invisible one

You see me and you walk past

my tears.

You meet me on the street

wet and hungry,

yet you do not see me

because I am invisible.

I am what you did not do,

I am what the institutions do not do,

I am human failure.

I am an invisible stray,

you see me and walk past

despite my tears.

You call me a stray,

but I am not bad,

no…

I would not want to bite you,

I would not want to frighten you.

I am a wandering soul

searching for love

and constant protection,

yet I remain distant.

But I am alive.

I am not human

but I have a heart,

and you crushed it

with your hand.

I am invisible

to you who do not want to see me,

to you who leave me

dying in the street.

For you, Municipality,

I am a plague in the streets.

You let me wander hungry

even though in your name

I am registered.

Italian law allows it.

I belong to the Municipality,

yet I am worth less than nothing.

I am a stray, an invisible one,

and you see me

but you walk past

despite my tears.

I live, or survive,

only thanks to volunteers,

angels on earth.

They are the only ones who help me,

the only ones who love me.

For the rest of the world

I should disappear.

For Northern Italy

I am an embarrassing story,

and for the South

an inconvenient plague.