publishing poetry only
 



Monday's Poem




© 2010 Tina Biello

"Pina torna a casa" is an excerpt from the chapbook Momenti (Leaf Press, 2010), poems inspired by her cousin Loreta Giannetti's watercolours of their ancestral village: Casacalenda on the south-east coast of Italy. Their collaborative exhibition, Acquerelli e poesie di Kalena, showcases at the Vancouver Italian Cultural Centre March 27 to April 10, 2010.

Tina also has a long background in theatre as an actor, playwright and performer. She teaches Commedia dell’Arte and has written a children’s play about Autism called The Indigo Kids.


Pina torna a casa

Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself.
-Carol Ann Duffy, "Prayer"


N'copp' u chian' di Masc',

my old street.

I remember how I washed the clothes, hung them to dry,
made pasta for the day, everyday.
Cavatiell' or tacchozz',
noodles I shaped with my thumbs.
On the days I tired of that I made linguine,
cut into long snakes with my dull pasta knife.

Now I am the dust on these stairs,
this house, my old balcony.
My days here were tiring. Seven babies.
It's good to be here as a spectator.
The bones of this house hold the stories of me;
an old book I hope someone will find and read.

Whenever a fesc_te da Madonn' du Carmine happens—
the one festival celebrated outside my door—
I am there.
No matter how dead I am,
I am faithful.
The people of the town wonder
who gave the Madonna such pretty roses.