Return to the Sea
The car wove seamlessly
through coastal roads
carved into the Lattari Mountains
toward the Amalfi Coast and
when the farthest hills appeared
and reappeared in shades of grey
to sea green tempered by thick clouds
the air was transmuted to silver.
I peered through open windows
elated by noon sun’s lustre
on the turquoise Tyrrhenian Sea
caressed by the cool breeze
and breathed in the ocean air
as it smiled with familiarity
recognizing the rhythm
of an ancestor’s heart.
Take rest
after a long, hot day
recline in the shade
of olive trees
and after a light meal
taste the juice
of fresh grapes
from your vineyard
partake of fruit
that waits for you
then sit with family
as the Lazio sun
melts into lavender hills
of the Eastern Apennines
finally fading
into the Tiber Valley
then close your eyes
imagine a boat
where you float
on soft winds
against an indigo sky
feel my fingertips
cool on your forehead
stroking your brow
goodnight.
We Abide At Point Reyes National Seashore
Here the borderline between
earth and sky blurs
and I wonder
why
when our world and what lies
above below between
need be separated
by death
and why in every metaphor poem
and prayer book we accept
that after death our
bodies
pass away then are eulogized with
pretty stories of paradise when
perhaps we -- our souls
our essences
have never left – never gone for good
grief longs for this I know
because at least once
I sensed
my mother slip into a space
beyond dreams where
she held me close
by phone
her voice a safety net to
nights I was alone at home
and afraid with two
babies
recently I felt my sister near
as I drove past her old
San Francisco home
on Noriega Street
The Band played and
incense burned like
after her return
from Europe
and I clearly saw my dad grin
as he watered the lawn at
our old Detroit home
all of this
returns to me as sea
and sky blur
into coastal
infinity
and my certainty we abide
in undetermined space
beyond this life
soars.
Mary Anna Scenga Kruch has been a career educator and writer inspired by social justice, her Italian American family, and the natural world. She has led a monthly writing group for 10 years and Mary Anna has published a poetry chapbook, We Draw Breath from the Same Sky (2019), and a full-length collection, Grace Notes: A Memoir in Poetry & Prose (2021). Recent poetry appears in Wayne Literary Review, Trinity Review, and Ovunque Siamo. She is working on her next poetry collection, A Finely Penned Road. She hopes to return to her father’s homeland again in 2023.
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Lovely images!
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