AN AMERICAN JOURNEY
My grandfather Antonio
left Apulia, Italy
for New York in 1923
pursuing not his dreams
but the man who murdered his deaf-mute father,
promising his mother he would avenge
her husband’s death
and return with honor,
his vendetta fulfilled.
When the blood is roused
such vows are quickly made,
but when the head cools
they are abruptly broken
especially in Manhattan where a man
who does not want to be found
can hide like a leaf in summer.
Antonio found a room on the Lower East Side,
went to work selling perfumes door-to-door,
the wrong sort of job if you’re sniffing out
the man who murdered your father,
but perfect for meeting a woman.
She was a beauty
from a small village near his own,
a woman such as the one in Fellini’s Amarcord
My grandfather Antonio
left Apulia, Italy
for New York in 1923
pursuing not his dreams
but the man who murdered his deaf-
her husband’s death
and return with honor,
his vendetta fulfilled.
When the blood is roused
such vows are quickly made,
but when the head cools
they are abruptly broken
especially in Manhattan where a man
who does not want to be found
can hide like a leaf in summer.
Antonio found a room on the Lower East Side,
went to work selling perfumes door-
the man who murdered your father,
but perfect for meeting a woman.
She was a beauty
from a small village near his own,
a woman such as the one in Fellini’s Amarcord
