Granada Poem by Salvatore Ala

When I picture my mother in her thirties in a red dress
Swooning to Mario Lanza’s Granada
On 78rpm, my memories sound
With forgotten revolutions per minute
Turning to roses and laughter and dance steps,
Turning to Europe in the vast sunset of war
And the static of questions childhood could not form
As history ate through the grooves
With crackles and bomb blasts
And the beauty that cannot last, but does.