Foundational by Michelle Reale

A house isn’t a museum, however much we want it to be. Years hence, you will try to remember the feel of the overstuffed chair, the scratch of your mother’s sober apron, and the wall calendar from the insurance agent where your mother crossed off each day with a big red “X,” a surefire way to leave the past behind. The swoosh of your only sister’s chiffon dress and the bright smudge of lipstick against her full lips, as your father called after her in tones of both rage and resignation. But it is really the memory of the crucifix you find difficult to forget---torpid, hanging on the cracked wall, casting a shadow that stalked you , especially when your heart felt light and even when it didn’t. 



Michelle Reale is the author of Season of Subtraction (Bordighera Press, 2019) and In the Blink of a Mottled Eye (Kelsay Books, 2020) among others. She is the Founding and Managing Editor of Ovunque Siamo: New Italian-American Writing. She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize.