In the hills overlooking the sea, she is chopping and stirring. She sends a message in the wind: In half one hour the evening meal will be ready. Meanwhile the old and the children of the old watch the slapping water sift cold sand through their fingers smoke thin cigarettes waiting for the boat that does come that certainly comes more than never. In the hills, among the rocks, she stirs the soup and hums a homecoming song On the shore the children wait for passage away from a past they cannot return to. In the hills she makes a bed of ashes and calls into the wind, Come home. Come home, the evening meal is ready. On the shore, in the hills, they lie down hungry in the sand, in the ash and dream the same dream of dipping bread, and kissing hands, in the distant days of sunshine.
Patricia Russo’s work has appeared in One Art, Identity Theory, Michigan City Review, The Bloomin’ Onion, and Stripes Literary Magazine.