Feast of the Seven Fishes · Linda Lamenza
n Feast of the Seven Fishes, Linda Lamenza uses both nuance and precise language to invite us into her Italian American childhood and how that childhood informs and colors her experiences as a woman, mother and teacher. When it is dark and no one / cares where we are, what can we come to understand about ourselves, one another and the world? This compelling collection reads like snapshots of moments in time; however, many of them speak to complex and universal questions about family and memory, patterns, time and resilience. Every poem inspires curiosity about the shrapnel of childhood / that pressure cooker and how we navigate our lives when we are released.
— Joan Kwon Glass, author of Daughter of Three Gone Kingdoms
$20.00
read excerpts
Because My Father was Drunk By Noon
Mom says Hurry. Get ready.
I am eight. I have to.
She gathers a picnic: a can of Progresso
Eggplant Appetizer, Italian loaf of bread,
Wishbone Salad Dressing bottle she fills with tap water.
Let’s go to Teatown Reservation.
I nod as she nudges me toward the car.
We drive to talk radio, I study my new watch.
We arrive.
I carry the picnic up, my feet
crunch leaves,
my mother, behind me.
At the top, rescued animals are in cages.
A skunk has a sign saying he can’t spray anymore.
I speak to him in a friendly voice.
Tell him sorry you lost your powers.
We sit on rocks.
Mom opens the can with her Swiss Army knife.
Spreads Appetizer on chunks of bread.
We take small bites, pass the water bottle.
Inhale the smoky, wet fall.
On the way down, I collect
rocks and leaves for my pocket.
My mother looks past me.
We drive the empty Taconic Parkway home.
Slowly we pull into the driveway:
broken flower pots, bottles of Piels Beer,
some whole, some shattered.
We go inside.
Couch crooked, coffee table toppled over.
One spindle of the rocking chair rests
on the shag carpet.
Dad, asleep in his Easy Chair.
On the television screen, Audrey Hepburn
pulls on her long, white gloves.
Life Advice from My Mother
You need some good
decaf black coffee
You must never allow
a knife to meet lettuce
Pieces of anything should be no
bigger than the tip of your pinky
Don’t smash the dough or the cookies will be
like hockey pucks
You should always blanch fresh green beans
have them on hand
Go to the Italian deli and buy
a couple of anchovies
Use Crisco
it softens
You want it light
do not use paste
Keep a-i-r-y, don’t pack it
or it will taste like sawdust
Weighing down eggplant
gets rid of the bitter
Relationships are like flowers
ignore them and they die.
St. Mary of Carmen Society Annual Italian-American Festival
Temporary shrine to La Madonna del Carmine
keeps watch over festivities.
She’ll be elevated on a platform,
carried in procession through the Sunday streets,
honored with dollar bills affixed to her with scotch tape.
We stand on the sidewalk near the Dragon Wagon,
hands brushing gently, as if on a first date.
We listen to the screech of gears,
inhale the peppers-and-onions air,
sway to the live hits,
a blonde baby Botticelli dances
to Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing,
Long-bearded Vietnam vet taps
his foot along with the band.
Olympia Pasquarosa,
Roger A. Marrocco, Sr.,
Antonio and Maria Magni,
and all the Clementes –
St. Mary of Carmen Society Annual Italian-American Festival
their photos, former society members,
suspended on wires above green, white and red
stripes painted on streets
by the Italian-American Police Association.
My stepdaughter and her Fresh Showered teen friends
wait in line for Fresh Squeezed Lemonade,
pretend not to know us when we wave.
One-toothed clerk at the fried dough truck
rasps Thanks, honey,
as she hands over my change.
about the author
Linda Lamenza is a poet and literacy specialist in Massachusetts. She lives with her partner and their children in the Boston area. When she’s not teaching, you can find her near the ocean or in her garden. Her work has appeared in Lily Poetry Review, San Pedro River Review, The Comstock Review, Nixes Mate Review, Ovunque Siamo and elsewhere. Her chapbook, Left-Handed Poetry, was a finalist for Hunger Mountain’s May Day Mountain Chapbook Series. She is a member of the Poem Works community in Boston as well as the Italian American Writers Association (IAWA). Feast of the Seven Fishes is her first full-length book. Read her previously published work at www.lindalamenza.com
Copyright © 2024 Linda Lamenza
Cover design by d’Entremont
Author photo by Bonnie Baker Photography
Library of Congress Control Number: 2024902578
ISBN 978-1-949279-52-8
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
