Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

Melinda Coppola

twenty four may | from the inside out

Albert Tromara,
my father
1926-2001

 

 

“In the old country….”, he began
and she thought,
he’s confused again, he wasn’t there…
and she remembered all
the stories he told of growing up in Roxbury,
only son of Albanian immigrants who worked hard
in the bakery, and he as a boy
worked alongside them.

On a rare afternoon off,
he’d join the others, first generation kids
from assorted old countries,
and they’d make do,
roll balls of twine
to play softball in the Boston streets.

“We worked hard, but life was simpler”…..
and she thought about how the contrasts were starker,
juxtapositions hard-angled and that now
the greatest discipline was to keep
from having too much, too many things,
to have just enough
in this land of cheap goods,
such irresistable colors
and ads all imploring
buy me! I alone shall
make your life complete!

And then her heart began to ache
and she was missing him, missing him,
and then she looked up
realized she was talking to her husband’s father,
not her own at all
for he was dead fifteen years now
and this one, this sweet
old man speaking in a thick accent
did hail from the old country,
or one of them, and
she took a deep breath,
fixed her eyes upon him
and began to listen.

 

Melinda Coppola

 

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