I Feel Bad About Leaving the Alabaster Light in Richmond
And I feel bad about buying the place in Lecce
That we hardly ever get to
I feel bad that my father never saw Sulmona or any place
In Toscana, where his father was born
And I feel bad that he and my grandfather never talked
About the family or the war or anything that would help me
Understand
Loss is hard, I know, and now that I am
Nearing the end of this Grand Tour
I am holding on too tight to things
Remembering all those things I did not do
Regretting all those things I ought not to have done
But here, in the early dark of an Abruzzesse winter day
I miss most of all the pendant’s amber glow, and wonder
How I will ever find my way home
This poem is from the chapbook How Way Leads on to Way by Linda Dini Jenkins (Finishing Line Press), and can be found at https://finishinglinepress.com/product/how-way-leads-on-to-way-by-linda-dini-jenkins/
Linda Dini Jenkins is the author of Becoming Italian: Chapter & Verse from an Italian American Girl and Up at the Villa: Travels with my Husband. Her poetry has been published in Voices in Italian Americana (VIA), Ovunque Siamo, and Poeti italo-americani e italocanadesi, among others. She is a contributor and Copy Editor for Abruzzissimo Magazine and a contributing writer for The Adventures of the Baker’s Daughter. She lives in Peterborough, New Hampshire and Sulmona (Abruzzo), Italy.
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