Qualcuno era...

Someone was a communist because they were born in Emilia
Someone was a communist because their grandfather
The uncle, the father. Not the mother

Someone was a communist because they saw
Russia as a promise
China as a poem, communism as earthly paradise
Someone was a communist because they felt alone

Someone was a communist because they had
A too Catholic education. (ah there ah there ah there ah)
Someone was a communist because cinema demanded it
Theater demanded it, painting demanded it
Literature too, everyone demanded it

Someone was a communist because they were told
Someone was a communist because they weren't told everything
Someone was a communist because before, before, before, they were fascist

Someone was a communist because they understood
That Russia was slow, but far
Someone was a communist because Berlinguer was a good person
Someone was a communist because Andreotti was not a good person
Someone was a communist because they were rich but loved the people

Someone was a communist because they drank wine
And were moved by popular festivals
Someone was a communist because they were so
Atheist that they needed another God
Someone was a communist because they were so
Fascinated by the workers that they wanted to be one of them

Someone was a communist because they couldn't stand being a worker anymore
Someone was a communist because they wanted a salary increase
Someone was a communist because the revolution today no, tomorrow maybe
But the day after tomorrow for sure
Someone was a communist because, the bourgeoisie
The proletariat, the class struggle, damn

Someone was a communist to anger their father
Someone was a communist because they only watched Rai 3
Someone was a communist for fashion, someone on principle
Someone out of frustration
Someone was a communist because they wanted to nationalize everything, damn

Someone was a communist because they didn't know the state employees
Parastatal and the like
Someone was a communist because they had
Mistaken dialectical materialism for the gospel according to Lenin
Someone was a communist because they were convinced
They had the working class behind them
Or damn

Someone was a communist because they were more communist than others
Someone was a communist because there was the great communist party
Someone was a communist despite the great communist party
Someone was a communist because there was nothing better

Someone was a communist because we had
The worst socialist party in Europe
Someone was a communist because the state
Worse than ours, only Uganda
Someone was a communist because they couldn't take it anymore
Of forty years of incapable and mafia-democratic governments

Someone was a communist because of Piazza Fontana
Brescia, the Bologna station, the Italicus
Ustica etcetera etcetera etcetera
Someone was a communist because whoever was against was a communist
Someone was a communist because they couldn't stand
That dirty thing we insist on calling democracy

Someone believed they were a communist, and maybe they were something else
Someone was a communist because they dreamed
Of a freedom different from the American one
Someone was a communist because they believed
They could only be alive and happy if others were too

Someone was a communist because they needed
A push towards something new
Because they felt the need for a different morality
Because maybe it was just a force, a flight
A dream, it was just a leap
A desire to change things
To change life

Yes, someone was a communist because with this leap beside
Everyone was like, more than themselves
It was like two people in one
On one side the personal daily struggle and on the other
The sense of belonging to a race, wanting to take flight
To truly change life
No, no regrets

Perhaps even then many had spread their wings
Without being able to fly, like hypothetical seagulls
And now?

Even now, one feels like in two
On one side the inserted man who crosses
Obediently the squalor of their own daily survival
And on the other, the seagull without even
The intention of flight anymore, because now the dream has shriveled
Two miseries in one body