O:JA&L Poetry: All forms & style
Gabriele Micozzi
Inventory of the Grandmothers Who Stayed
To explore or download a close reading of this poem, click on the title below:
ATTENDING TO THE QUIET: A Reading of Gabriele Micozzi’s “Inventory of the Grandmothers Who Stayed”
There are five grandmothers left
on Via della Fonte.
One remembers the name of every cow.
One remembers the year the snow reached the windows.
One remembers the priest before the priest before this priest.
One has forgotten her son
but not the road he took.
The fifth keeps a key
for a house sold to strangers
who come in August
and say how silent everything is.
Silent.
As if the place had chosen it.
The grandmothers do not answer.
They sit in the doorway
with their black dresses folded around them
like burned flags.
Behind them the rooms are still set
for children who married the highway.
On Sundays the bells ring
for a population larger than the living.
The dead attend faithfully.
So do the cats.
So does the fig tree,
which has no interest in demographics
and keeps making sweetness
for mouths that have moved away.
About the writer:
Gabriele Micozzi is an Italian writer and essayist based between the Marche and Rome. His work moves through systemic horror, civic and ecological poetry, and experimental forms. His writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Asymptote, Strange Horizons, American Poetry Journal, Heavy Feather Review, Space and Time Magazine, The Ecological Citizen, Ballast Journal, and other venues.
Image: The Long Afternoon (AI-assisted digital image) by O:JA&L staff creative. 2026. Public domain via Midjourney AI.
OJAL Art Incorporated, publishing since 2017 as OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters (O:JA&L) and its imprints Buttonhook Press, HOT BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Issues, and HIGH BUTTON PRESS Contemporary Art, supports writers and artists worldwide.
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series
The Buttonhook Press Masters Series (from OPEN: Journal of Arts & Letters and its Buttonhook Press imprint) gathers acclaimed writers for concise, downloadable chapbooks that pair fresh work with candid reflections on craft. Each installment—often framed by an interview with an associate editor—opens a window onto how masters of poetry, prose poetry, flash fiction, and related hybrid forms build voice, compression, and surprise. Designed as a reader’s invitation and a writer’s toolbox, the series celebrates literary art that moves fast, cuts deep, and lingers long after the last line.
Click on the titles below to explore or download the free PDF chapbooks.
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With an Interview by Associate Editor Pamelyn Casto
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The Buttonhook Press Masters Series: Jim Meirose on Experimental Discourse (XP)
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