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Monday, April 30, 2012

Revelations in the Key of R

I am the alphabet backwards
If R didn’t exist, I never could have.

On alliteration homework assignments,
I wrote my name next to generous, genuine, gregarious
All obtuse
R worked in the shadows:
Radiant, reflective, resolute .

Royalty, strangers called me.
I perfected my name’s soft curves,
I referenced a different history altogether.

The rhythm of my family pulses in my middle
It punctuates my symphony with a slow movement
It reminisces of my ancestors’ voice
Now lost under six feet of another country’s dirt
Better they don’t know.

Better they rest in unvisited tombs
Their deaf ears hardened
To crashing waves and thick Italian
Their hardwood caskets
Forever adorned with an immortal Rose.



(Inspired by Mary Karr's "Revelations in the Key of K")

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