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")