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Board Administrator Username: mjm Post Number: 4463 Registered: 11-1998 |
Honorable Mention Calabrian Vistas Beowulf 1 - Il Paese Nativo (Native Land) From the apex of medieval church to the talons of verdant foothills San Donato will not release its tenuous grip on Appennine ridge. Trapped between Tyrrhenian and Adriatic coasts it sits immutable - ensconced on slender perch, tethered to subsistence on chance predation. A wayward guest atop lofty bridge winds his way to scrutinize a looming host. October clouds engulf the peak with the oppressive hues of stoic skies. 2 - Il Traversimento (The Journey) In the paradox that is Calabria; he observes and reflects on what it would take to leave ancestral lands, to hostile sun. Amid the cacti and olive groves he scrutinizes maternal home. Untimely swept, his father left, plucked to distant shore. Without working papers in hand, makeshift valise bound by rope that hung in a slaughterhouse with viands and hunger to cure. A vacant face amid the throng Ingredient added at port of entry: Halifax or Ellis Isle. The "melting pot" had simmered down and simmered long. The battle fought was for very life. Line was drawn in cultural warfare, with tradition left to die by attrition. "Assimilate and prove them wrong." 3 - Il Ritorno (The Return) Camouflaged by rolling mists, opaque veneer eclipses vision; expunged from homeless mind transplanted to an alien shore. The apparition of battlements and buttresses swallowed whole. All denizens and their existence blotted out like billows on coral reef. This prodigious sight belittles, but leaves him to reason what might have been, if not for decisions rendered when fascism still reigned. True to the hamlet's sullen nature, it reappears as if by necromancy but will not divulge the shrouded lives deep within the stately core. |
