AUR LitPut III Spring 2023 - From Now To Then
"When I found out about my father’s diagnosis, my first impulse was to light up,” Nalu Gruschkus writes in the opening line of Abnormal Whites and Excessive Blues, her striking piece about her father’s cancer and her own addiction to smoking. In A Bit of Extra Fun, Delaida Rodriguez is having an unpleasant lunch at a restaurant with her boozy mother. Over a chicken sandwich she has barely touched, she peers into her mother’s jade eyes only to realize with dread that she is more like her than she would care to be. Sam Geida looks back in Friday Night Dinners to the glorious family get-togethers at his grandmother’s house – now it’s only a few of them around the same table, with paper plates and the flat blue and white cardboard boxes of Gino’s Pizzeria. The stories in last year’s issue of Lit/Pub were mostly about making sense of things as we emerged from our Covid isolation. The mood is more assertive this year. Isabela Alongi’s vibrant cover design brilliantly evokes a world in movement and young people going places. It is a thread we pick up again in Josephine Dlugosz’s delicate musings (Work of Art), and in the short fiction of Scott Cameron and Raegan Peluso (A Song for Mr Solomon and Two-Faced). The poetry section is especially strong with Gina Carlo’s compassionate trilogy about love and loss and Scott Cameron’s haunting poem about his return to the bleak post-Katrina wasteland. On the lighter side, Lit/Pub spoke to Professor Bruno Montefusco about campus fashion. In the new memoir section, D.P. gives us a tender account of a childhood road trip with her father to Arizona (Snow). And students are traveling again! Emily Chow takes us with her on her intrepid solo trip to Malta. Rome, May 2023
"When I found out about my father’s diagnosis, my first impulse was to light up,” Nalu Gruschkus writes in the opening line of Abnormal Whites and Excessive Blues, her striking piece about her father’s cancer and her own addiction to smoking. In A Bit of Extra Fun, Delaida Rodriguez is
having an unpleasant lunch at a restaurant with her boozy mother. Over a chicken sandwich she has barely touched, she peers into her mother’s jade eyes only to realize with dread that she is more like her than she would care to be. Sam Geida looks back in Friday Night Dinners to the glorious family get-togethers at his grandmother’s house – now it’s only a few of them around the same table, with paper plates and the flat blue and white cardboard boxes of Gino’s Pizzeria.
The stories in last year’s issue of Lit/Pub were mostly about making sense of things as we emerged from our Covid isolation. The mood is more assertive this year. Isabela Alongi’s vibrant cover design brilliantly evokes a world in movement and young people going places. It is a thread we pick up again in Josephine Dlugosz’s delicate musings (Work of Art), and in the short fiction of Scott Cameron and Raegan Peluso (A Song for Mr Solomon and Two-Faced).
The poetry section is especially strong with Gina Carlo’s compassionate trilogy about love and loss and Scott Cameron’s haunting poem about his return to the bleak post-Katrina wasteland. On the lighter side, Lit/Pub spoke to Professor Bruno Montefusco about campus fashion. In the new memoir section, D.P. gives us a tender account of a childhood road trip with her father to Arizona (Snow). And students are traveling again! Emily Chow takes us with her on her intrepid solo trip to Malta.
Rome, May 2023
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Prose<br />
to thrive and live in your moment. You would be doing him a greater disservice by compromising your<br />
personal progression. He is going to be fine. Luna is going to be fine. We all just have to wait it out and<br />
the best thing you can do for him is show up for him when you can, even if it’s from Rome.”<br />
The last time I was home, which was over winter break this past December, my father finished<br />
his last round of inpatient chemo. We had a celebration. He didn’t want it to be a ‘party.’ He’s not a<br />
party kind of guy and the less fuss the better. My sister and I made a banner that spelled out, “Auguri<br />
papa.” He still has it hanging in his house that is now a home. His home.<br />
On January 20th, I flew back to Rome. On that same day, my father had three major doctor’s<br />
appointments to see if the chemo had worked. I texted him before I left.<br />
Love you, good luck with your appointments today and let me know what you find out.<br />
On January 25th, everything came full circle when my mom texted me this:<br />
Papa’s bone marrow biopsy results just came thru and he is 100% cancer free, all the way down to<br />
the molecular level.<br />
I was in Portugal visiting a friend. “What’s up?” he interjected, taking notice of my eyes welling<br />
up. I quietly recited the text and began to salivate.<br />
H<strong>III</strong><strong>III</strong> mom texted me that your bone marrow biopsy results came thru and you’re cancer free<br />
!!!! I love you so much, I’m so happy and proud of how resilient you’ve been these past seven months.<br />
I shuffled around in my bag looking for my pack as my friend tossed me a lighter. My phone<br />
dinged.<br />
Thanks Nalu! I’m kind of stunned. All that inpatient stuff behind me. Feels strange. But Fantastic!<br />
<strong>Then</strong> I retreated to the balcony and lit up. It only felt right to bookend the journey. As of now,<br />
I plan to quit after college. That gives me two more years to be a fiend. Here’s hoping.<br />
5
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