Where I'm From

Where I’m From #29

By Rosanna Staffa

Inspired by George Ella Lyon

I am from a blue Atala bike

From Borotalco Roberts and Coty powder #21

the whiff of candy they left in the bathroom

I’m from watching a snowfall from window to window

Old newspapers piled on a chair and a piano.

I am from yellow tramways and small squares with dripping fountains

Sidewalks smelling pungent,

after a Spring rainfall, skunk.-like

I am from Sunday crossword puzzles, and butterflies

at the window,

No hugs.

Lightning bugs in a jar. A stray cat that was secretly mine.

From Magda Sangineto and Ugo Staffa.

I’m from Magda embroidering my dowry, never too early to start, and Ugo the marvelous dancer

who dragged along a trunk of novels throughout the war.

Tolstoy, Maupassant, Dumas.

Eat slowly and sit up straight.

I’m from playing catch with my brothers in front of an abandoned church.

I’m from Neapolitan barons

and Swedish soldiers with blue eyes

I am from Zeppole sweets at Carnival I fried standing on a chair.

From a father who at the front in Albania said yes to switching places for a furlow, and the boat

that soldier boarded sank in the Adriatic sea.

Always rushing early to trains and events, he died very old

and wanting more time.

From a mother with a cascade of chestnut curls

cupping her chin in her hands with serious eyes

who died too young

for me to see her when I look in my mirror.

I took with me from home to home in a battered box:

her thimble and a frayed prayer book, his mess kit and Modiano Neapolitan deck of cards.

A nest of old feathers, I hide them

high on a shelf in every home.

Where to find Alyson:

Website: https://www.alysonshelton.com

Substack: https://whereimfrom.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/byalysonshelton/