The second time around there were no tears,
just meek, deflated looks of desperation.
A rustling of indifferent feet, a shuffling
of loosened papers busying themselves, a nervous
scuttling off in the shadows. We all munched, as quietly
as quiet does, the stale candy that Abby passed around,
leftover from our latest carnival. We all believed,
deep down, that it would come to this: not a bitter end,
not a fiery blaze, just the glistening sound of our heart
burrowing itself against the artificial warmth
of endless winters.

Valentina Fulginiti is a bilingual scholar, educator and author living in Ithaca, NY. An alumna of the University of Toronto (Canada) and the Università di Bologna (Italy), since 2014 has teaching Italian language courses and first-year writing seminars at Cornell University. Her academic prose has been published in journals such as The Italianist and Science Fiction Studies among others. She writes creatively in English (mainly poetry) and Italian (mainly prose). Herdebut novel was recently awarded the Premio Inediti Bianciardi in November 2024 and is forthcoming in Italy with the press Excogita.