Rose Calabria

“Rose Calabria”, the voice in my head
woke me up, scared the hell-out-of-me.
I had not heard that name mentioned
in decades.

You see, I never knew Rose Calabria.

My mother and aunt would sometimes
mention her name in somewhat hushed
tones.

Usually people spoken-of, in sotto voce,
were either male femina or Santa Marias.
Which one was Rose Calabria;
I never knew.

Maybe a relative or in-law, and her last name,
could have just been a place name,
like Joe Napoli or Tony Roma.
Either way, it haunted me that Rose Calabria
and all of those family members were all
gone too quickly.

Maybe Rose Calabria spoke her name,
for me to remember those times,
that evaporated like steam,
gone before I even noticed.


TP