My Other Country:

Do you remember Mom?
Do you remember how Nono and Noni were?
They left home and went to a new country.
They married there in that other country.
They found someone to trust as much as they loved,
Loyalty was as high on their list as love,
And they found their other country.
It wasn't Tuscany or Sicily,
Not Quarratta or Messina,
Just Beloit Wisconsin USA,
That little church of the angels,
Saint Paul's church where they said those vows,
Where you were baptized and had first communion,
Where you and Dad were married,
Where Lori and I were baptized,
Where there were angels on the ceiling.
I walked my Baby down the street tonight,
Around the block wobbly,
Too much wine for her and just enough for me,
I made her feel loved and safe like she deserves,
Saw her off to bed after she was ready for the room to stop spinning,
And realized I was in my other country.
You knew because you gave us your bed back in our early days.
Could you have picked any other way to wake us up and blow our minds?
I think Nono and Lori were mad at each other back when,
Neither realizing they were angry because of love,
Because they were moving over territory no one understands,
Each loving the other and thinking they were wrong,
But underneath the anger was the roots of love.
Maybe they'll know when both are in Heaven some day.
I smoked a cigar out in the garage tonight,
Sent the incense up to Heaven where Nono would smell it,
Hoping he would bring all of you down to visit,
My Quarratta and Messina and Beloit,
The country I knew and grew up in,
My Yates Avenue crowd.
Noni went off in '70,
Nono while I was away in boot camp in '79,
And you Mom,
It's going to be two years this February 11th,
Just three days after my birthday.
I've found my other country and she's beautiful and loving and loyal,
But I can't go home and visit my mother like Nono did,
So I picked three stars up in Heaven,
One for each of you and glorious,
You're at the center of Casseopia the Princess,
Noni and Nono are at the center of Cygnus the Swan,
And I can look up at night in the Summer,
Even though cigar smoke will never float that high,
I can feel you there like the undertone of my Universe,
You in bobby socks popping bubble gum and bold,
Noni reading the paper while the sugu simmers on the stove,
Nono having a cigar there with me,
Lori and Jeff and I,
We're in our other country now,
Even though it was the one we were born in,
In the end all that ever made anywhere home,
That was simply the love we've always known.

AquarianM

By: Daniel A. Stafford
(C) 08/16/2004

Author's Comments:
Some place somewhere in between night and home and Heaven. It doesn't matter where that is.