It’s morning. Our guide tells us Hannibal lost 500 men while crossing the Alps. Of the 37 elephants who came through the mountains, only one survived the brutal winter that followed the battle.

Later in the afternoon, our bus makes an unscheduled stop at a convenience store on the highway. The manager, unprepared, gives us our change in Mars Bars. One woman tries to give them back. She tells him she’s diabetic. Doesn’t need change from her purchase. Of course, he only speaks Italian, and she English. Her grand gesture only frustrates him. By the end, she’s in tears. In line for the toilet, I miss the whole scene. The man in front of me says, “I just hate it when I use the john after a woman. They always leave the seat down.”

At the Bellavista Hotel, I take a few laps in the unheated pool. Wrapped in a towel, I sit in a lounge chair, chat with a divorced father who is travelling with his two teenage daughters. He adjusts his earring, says, “I’m a dancer. Keep my weight down by being a finicky eater. I know I make my girls uncomfortable, but I need them—more than they need me.” Paint peels on the railing next to us. I tell him it’s the job of a parent to make one’s kids uncomfortable.

In the evening, I stand at the shutters. The streetlight casts yellow bars onto the floor. Between the buildings, on all sides, lines of laundry sway like bright curtains.

old walls ... 
new voices, same problems 
half moon softens all  

Patricia L. Scruggs

is the author of one poetry collection, Forget the Moon (Bambaz Press, 2015). Born in Denver, Colorado, she grew up in Alberta, Canada, where she often saw the Northern Lights in winter. When she was a teenager, her family relocated to Southern California where she has happily lived ever since.

Her poems have appeared in Burningword Literary Journal, Calyx, Crab Creek Review, Cultural Weekly, Inlandia: A Literary Journey, The Lummox Journal, MacQueen’s Quinterly, ONTHEBUS, Rattle, RipRap, and Spillway, among others; as well as in these anthologies: 13 Los Angeles Poets, So Luminous the Wildflowers, and Beyond the Lyric Moment.

A recent Pushcart nominee, Patti earned her MFA at California State University, Fullerton. Now a retired art teacher, she and her husband of 68 years have two children and three grandchildren.

More on the Web: By, About, and Beyond

⚡ An ego is not an egg in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 20, September 2023)

⚡ Contemporary Stuff in Burningword Literary Journal (July 2023)

⚡ A Dazzle of Zebras Escapes From a Maryland Farm in MacQueen’s Quinterly (Issue 12, March 2022)

⚡ Four Poems in Inlandia Journal (12 November 2020), includes audio of poet reading “Boom! Roman Candle Boom! Fish Boom! Dahlia Boom! Boom! Boom!”; “Postcard”; “This One Life”; and “Thread”