QUESTION OF RETURN

by Chloé Yelena Miller

Sala Consilina (SA), Italia

Black, cotton scarf buries nonna’s grey hair.
She is always in mourning.

Consumed by her husband’s family land, ungloved hands reveal
artichokes, eggplant, rosemary behind olive tree rows.
Chickens sidestep her steps.

The stone arch holding up the ivy linked our family houses.
It is wide enough for horses.
Then.
When there were horses.
Capito?
It has been translated for me.

She self-censors stories familiar from hand-softened letters:
stolen money, a man with a wife on both continents,
relatives whose children spoke only English.