Thursday, February 19, 2009

My Life as a Mafia Widow

It's something about the Italian shape of your nose
something that lurks in the shadows in oddly compelling Mafia films
the unexpected gia visto of Sciasca's sentences
that I absorb untaught in the original

old nightmares of being chased down cobbled streets to my death
start to make some kind of sense

and my face on my passport photo
looks like some Sicilian widow
as I was when Cosa Nostra stole you away
in our last life

and still in this one
you never speak to me
while your girl
practices mourning,
Mafia style


gia visto - deja vu

10 comments:

anthonynorth said...

Nicely done. My nose says a lot about me, too.

Ana said...

I like the 'shadows of oddly compelling Mafia films" . when I was a kid they had a lot of Mafia films on TV and this does remind me of them...

(of course, it was during the era of depicting the rotten capitalism as a crime zone so I got scared of Sicily)

Raven's Wing Poetry said...

Nicely done! I also like some of your internal rhyme ("It's something about the Italian shape of your nose/
something that lurks in the shadows") and your exploration of the past life theme.

Anonymous said...

i like running down the street to your death, but i think the crux of this for me is "you never speak to me." it's in the context of this life and the past lives and it's a really powerful dynamic that we feel has probably repeated and lingered. strong!

polona said...

this makes me feel like i've entered a mafia film. powerful write

Deb said...

You pack so much in! A lover, a past life, eerie references to both. How the Italian is slipped in effortlessly. Just as it should be.

Anonymous said...

Gia Visto, I feel like I've read this before... but you know what they say, they say: If you tell somebody something three times, they'll think that they told you!

I don't know if the above is true but I read your poem three times anyway, and learnt a little Italian.
Thank you.

The NaisaiKu.. Challenge!

Anonymous said...

i can feel the adventure side in it..great one!

Anonymous said...

It feels as if the speaker has just woken up and realized that this is really her life, especially the 3rd stanza. I love it.

Anonymous said...

that Italian nose
says a lot
about you.