A Poem by Marc Alan Di Martino

For Sale

I've seen this family through thick and thin:
a war, six popes, three blighted marriages,
lonely late-night alcohol-fueled purges,
betrayal, subterfuge, redemption, zen;
the feuds, the fratricide, the brotherly love,
the lust, the pride, humility and greed,
the wine, the nicotine, the dregs, the dread
which lines the human psyche like a glove.
I've seen ten fingers clutched around a neck,
a handgun cocked straight at a woman's face
because of some all-but-forgotten slight.
And now my walls reopen their embrace
to brave new strangers come to try their luck—
I hope they don't go down without a fight.

Marc Alan Di Martino’s books include Day Lasts Forever: Selected Poems of Mario dell'Arco (World Poetry, 2024—longlisted for the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation), Love Poem with Pomegranate (Ghost City, 2023), Still Life with City (Pski's Porch, 2022) and Unburial (Kelsay, 2019). His poems and translations appear in Rattle, iamb, Palette Poetry and many other journals and anthologies. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net. Currently a reader for Baltimore Review, he lives in Italy. His website is marcalandimartino.com