Mary Grace Mangano

Going Home, Leaving Home

The small goodbyes surprise me with their tears

After all these years when they still stand

There in the driveway, crossing air with prayer

For my safe drive. Who knows? The news still echoes

Of taken girls, their bodies dumped like rocks.

But that’s not why I’m scared. These weekends, leaving

That old gray house, the one where I grew up,

I can’t look back because, with every trip,

It’s less and less my home. They watch me leaving

And now I know the tears are for my grieving.

Mary Grace Mangano is a poet, writer, and professor. Her writing has been published in Literary Matters, Mezzo Cammin, Plough, Church Life Journal, America, The Windhover, and others. She lives in New Jersey.