{"id":1691,"date":"2020-12-18T23:55:13","date_gmt":"2020-12-18T23:55:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/vice-versa\/?page_id=1691"},"modified":"2020-12-31T16:07:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-31T16:07:55","slug":"antonio-vallone","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/vice-versa\/antonio-vallone\/","title":{"rendered":"Antonio Vallone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Elegy for My Two Toes<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

I lost you in the summer of 2020
\nto my surgeon\u2019s scalpel
\nin, of all places, Altoona, Pennsylvania<\/p>\n

where I suppose the remnants
\nof your ashes reside in the murky bowels
\nof the hospital incinerator<\/p>\n

I prefer to imagine you hopped
\na freight where trains slow, turning
\nat the famous Horseshoe Curve<\/p>\n

or pretending to be two small thumbs
\nyou stuck yourselves out
\nfor rides with long-haul truckers
\nand housewives looking for excitement<\/p>\n

I suppose I should have much more
\nto say about you, seeing we lived together
\nfor 63 years and a few weeks<\/p>\n

But, honestly, I don\u2019t
\nHanging out at the border
\nof my left foot, my surgeon said
\nyou didn\u2019t much help me stand or walk<\/p>\n

I drowned you in baths
\nShower water rained down on you
\nlike tears I should be shedding<\/p>\n

I trimmed your ragged nails
\nI stubbed you just
\noften enough so you could send me<\/p>\n

telegraphs of pain
\nreminding me you existed
\nBut now you\u2019re gone forever<\/p>\n

slipping away in the darkness
\nof anesthesia, like two roommates
\nwho\u2019ve worn your socks and shoes<\/p>\n

and owe you years of future rent<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Brockport Heart<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

The heart surgeon shared her secret with me:
\n\u201cWhen I opened your chest,\u201d she said,
\nI saw a town inside\u2014<\/p>\n

a book store on Main Street, a college,
\nfriendly neighbors waving hello.
\nA canal ran through it.<\/p>\n

In fact, the scar that runs down the center of your chest
\nfollows its path.<\/p>\n

I asked the attendant to open the lift bridge,
\nand he did. The other four bypasses
\nI performed myself,
\nrerouting the flow
\nas best as I could.<\/p>\n

Neighbors gathered as if watching a parade.
\nThey murmured among themselves
\nabout how you were doing
\nand how long this might take.<\/p>\n

The surgical nurse wiped my brow
\nso sweat didn\u2019t drip like rain
\ninto blocked-off streets.<\/p>\n

Closing your chest muffled their cheers.<\/p>\n

I left detour signs
\nfor the altered direction
\nyour blood flowed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A few years later after an angiogram,
\nI saw those signs on an X-ray\u2014
\narrows pointing the new way into town.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Antonio Vallone<\/strong><\/span> is associate professor of English at Penn State DuBois, founding publisher of MAMMOTH books, poetry editor of Pennsylvania English,<\/em> a co-founding editor of The Watershed Journal Literary Group, which provides\u00a0journal and book publishing\u00a0\u00a0opportunities for local writers, and board member of The Watershed Journal. Collections include The Blackbird\u2019s Applause, Grass Saxophones, Golden Carp,<\/em> and Chinese Bats.<\/em> Forthcoming are American Zen and Blackberry Alleys: Collected Poems and Prose.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elegy for My Two Toes   I lost you in the summer of 2020 to my surgeon\u2019s scalpel in, of all places, Altoona, Pennsylvania where I suppose the remnants of your ashes reside in the murky bowels of the hospital incinerator I prefer to imagine you hopped a freight where trains slow, turning at the … <\/p>\n

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