I've seen this family through thick and thin:
a war, six popes, three blighted marriages,
lonely late-night alcohol-fueled purges,
betrayal, subterfuge, redemption, zen;
the feuds, the fratricide, the brotherly love,
the lust, the pride, humility and greed,
the wine, the nicotine, the dregs, the dread
which lines the human psyche like a glove.
I've seen ten fingers clutched around a neck,
a handgun cocked straight at a woman's face
because of some all-but-forgotten slight.
And now my walls reopen their embrace
to brave new strangers come to try their luck—
I hope they don't go down without a fight.