Dispatches

My Nonna keeps visiting me

While I do my morning exercises

She tells me my hair is nice and thick

And my shoulder mobility is wonderful

She tells me I’m strong and that I have a nice figure

She tells me the amount of beauty I have is totally acceptable

The amount of love I have is completely good

She says my sex life is admirable

And the success and riches I’ve chosen are enough

She says I’m right that revolution isn’t peaceful in the traditional sense

She says if I need to die for the cause that she’ll greet me 

As I wake up next to the river

Water logged and shellacked with mud

Buzzing with the pain and fading importance of the last round

She says she’ll help me get ready for the next round

She tells me her stories are private except the ones she wrote down for that modern day posterity email subscription thing I gave her one year for mother’s day

She says to read those stories again

She says to read about the evils of my ancestors

She says to cook sticky cherry chicken 

And radicchio salad

She says to gather information and supplies and exchange them with others

She says to teach the kids how to resist

Their own oppression