Dandelion Days

Summer possibilities
last only ninety days at best
and weeds upon weeds color
each day with abandon.

By the the river's edge...

Daily, Hubby and I
scour old maps for a
a new trail we've heard of,
or one not trod recently
where dream
landscapes can reset our clocks
for an hour or so, allowing us to
forget achy backs and sore knees
as though we left them asleep in bed, where rain
wind and
pesky news interrupt  our rest so often.


Hope-blown-scarlet leaves
swirl around a wild apple tree
with no known name
as the impeding rain
hurries us on. I take a bite, and fail to recognize the taste.

At the grocery store, before driving home, we look at Fuji apples
all smart and perfectly arranged
(how the wild apples
sprayed  my gums with alacrity,
daring me to like them, to find them again...)
we gather four perfect Fuji
for  our return
to the warm home
and  measured life of polished fruit
and porcelain smiles.

Stranded at Disneyland

Did you know that when you left your home it
was for the last time
that your special nick- name was dropped
and you had to wear a new badge
and that your family
your toys
your language
your food
your friends
your very identity were no longer yours?

Did you know what Allegiance meant?

Stranded between what you were and what you would become, your journey took decades, continued in your children and grandchildren for centuries in the future.

Did you know that when and if you returned to visit you would be branded with the brand of the new place, though that brand didn't fit you right? That everyone would never share with you again the stories of olden days since you were no longer able to remember such days?

Did you know you would be shunned for daring to leave the others behind?
Did you know you would be shunned for not sounding at all the way the new others sounded?
Did you know that an A student could suddenly become a D student?

Did you know that you would become stranded even at Disneyland?

Foreclosed in America.

Sign on the door: “Per me si va”*




The road was paved with gold and precious stones

At every step a sign, don’t look behind!

Everyone, get your chance, come to our shores

Move to America.



The words spoke of freedom and vast prairies

Wild rivers, new horizons

Land-a-plenty, with no fences

Discover America.



We rode toward Paradise, toward Zions

And all the way out West

Following Lewis and Clark and many moons

Settling in America.



Wife, children, a cabin milled before winter rest

Heartaches, lost limbs, broken bets

Woods to conquer, nests to upset

Making it in America.



When husband’s hand was amputated

And a medical debt cleared the house

And the horses, and all our future gutted

While fully mortgaged in America,

All the signs were in a strange prose

No art or science helped, no music or history

Not even Braille, Hebrew or Morse.

The only way to be American.



I knew nothing of promissory notes

Just things I could eat, carrots and cabbage

And a language without Kings and Toads.

Who knew I’d be foreclosed !

In America?







*Dante, Divine Comedy

Sign at the Entrance to Hell

“Through me is the way to…”





Rosaria

10-5-10