Lynne Viti is a lecturer emerita in the Writing Program at Wellesley College. She is the author of two previous poetry collections, Baltimore Girls and The Glamorganshire Bible, and the recently published Going Too Fast: Stories. Her website is lynneviti.wordpress.com.
In Praise of Pasta alla Norma in the time of Covid-19
Infused with minced anchovies and eggplant,
married to tomatoes and good olive oil
the rust-colored sauce reminds us of Sicily,
our walks up the mountains and hills from
Enna to Cefalù, on ancient drove roads in the heat
through villages where only the old have stayed,
where the locals offered to sell us empty houses for a pittance
if we’d only pay the back taxes and fix the place up.
Twice, our hostess says, almost as an apology,
It’s a vegetarian meal tonight. No need—
the short tubes of pasta enrobed in sarsa,
ricotta salting the dish beyond what we normally permit
smell of earth and sun.
Fresh baked crusty bread, a salad,
and pasta alla Norma. Tonight,
we soften the lines of our self-imposed quarantine,
we’re transported back to Catania that May
when we emerged from the airport terminal
into the warm night, looking to fill our bellies,
our souls with food for a king composed like an aria
from stuff of the ancient Sicilian earth.
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