Grace, Joey, Eugene, Tony, Tina, Vera, Jay
“I’ll ride with you to Gracie’s rosary.”
intonation peculiar
voice muffled by layers of exhaustion
“Sure, Ma, that’s fine.”
pause inflated by a sigh
suctioning of memory
raising her chest to a lifetime
releasing the inevitability
clarification of goodbye
succumbing to a dull embrace
“Everybody’s gone.”
listen
inhalation
exhalation
accents of perplexity
“Everybody's gone.”
talk . . . just talk
rounding corners of silences
so many heartbeats stolen
“The envelope says Jeannie’s first curl.”
voice sits upon a quaver
she drifts
to the kitchen table
arms cradling her newborn
jeanne rené 4/05
'Everybody is gone' is a refrain I am coming to understand. The world [San Jose] was so much smaller when they were young. As LoCurtos and Caccamos and Gairnese started slipping away, well, everybody is gone. I know we can't travel back but if we could, I might pick a big family gathering to enjoy that orange soda from those juice glasses and sit at the kids table, watching the adults who are long gone.
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