You’ve been gone too long

by Christa Lubatkin

you’ve been gone too long
filling yourself up
with Sicily

here it is an unremarkable
desert day
winds comb
Palo Verde trees
contented clouds
hang out
over the Catalina mountains
and I
slouch on the sofa
with Frazier’s engaging story
transported to the civil war
while book-marking
my place in this world

you’ve been gone too long
eating sea urchins
and fresh sardines over pasta

while I have been waiting
for you to unpack
stories from Palermo to Syracuse
show me pictures of temples
cathedrals and Moorish mosques
and tell me
what books I should read
to transport me to Sicilian cafes
where brown-armed men
with fiery names like Vincenzo
Francesco and Salvatore
gesture while sipping limoncello.

Christa Lubatkin lives, hikes, and writes in Tucson, Arizona.  She is a transplant from many places beginning with her place of origin—Germany.  Much of her early writing was dark, occupying herself with her birthplace's sinister history.  Unburdened now, her work has become more far-reaching.  This is her 2nd publication in Splash.  Her work has also appeared in The Write Launch, Patterson Literary Review, Cathexis Northwest, and a Willodown Books Anthology among others.