Dancing at Lake Montebello
Poems
Lynne Viti
Dancing at Lake Montebello
Poems
Lynne Viti
Copyright © 2020 by Lynne Viti
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission from the publisher (except by reviewers who may quote brief passages).
First Edition
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62720-280-0
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-62720-281-7
Printed in the United States of America
Design by Catherine Tsilionis
Editorial Development by Sofia Barr
Promotion plan by Sarah Conroy
Published by Apprentice House Press
Apprentice House Press
Loyola University Maryland
4501 N. Charles Street
Baltimore, MD 21210
410.617.5265
www.ApprenticeHouse.com
For Tom, Will and Tony
Contents
I. Girls 1
Biography 2
Parrot Jungle 3
Inheritance 4
Matinee at the Shore 7
Clifton Park 9
Labor Day 11
The Good Father 13
Hollyhocks in the Alley 15
My Father’s War 16
We Called It Armistice Day 18
Lament 20
Crabbing on the Isle of Wight Bay 22
Early Morning in Highlandtown 24
My Mother on My Cousin’s Wedding Day 26
Girls 28
The Color of Her Volkswagen 29
Inclined Plane, Pulley Wheel & Axle 31
Engineer 34
Dancing at Lake Montebello 36
Judgment 37
Reckoning 38
II. Love Drunk 41
At the Foghorn 42
Actor 44
Preparations 45
Nickel Dreams 47
I Can’t Get No 49
Homeleaving 52
Punting 53
Starter Wedding 54
Love Drunk 56
Greenwich Mean Time 57
Tremont Street Suppers 59
Putnam Avenue in Spring 60
Drinking Games 61
In Louisburgh, County Mayo, thinking about Dublin 62
Suze in Midsummer 64
Brantwood Lane Miscellany 66
Pâtissière 68
The Guitar of Solitude 70
Murphy in August 71
Ghazal: Returning 72
Shades at the Reunion 73
III. More Dangerous for All of Us 75
I Learned That Marilyn Had Died 76
Gun Stories 78
Photos of Your Daughter’s Wedding Under the Mandap,
Not the Chuppa 80
Elegy for Alice, Forty-Six 82
Scattering Alice’s Ashes from the Pont D’Arcôle 83
Eve’s Diary 84
Sugar Pumpkins 86
Weeding the Bittersweet 87
Last Sunday in July 89
The Shadow of the Lost Object Falls Across the Ego 90
How You Were Before 91
The Dying 92
Making Love to You Was Like Peeling 94
More Dangerous for All of Us 95
Deep Midwinter After-Party 97
The Summer People 99
Greyhounds 101
Leukapheresis 103
Charm City 104
Leftovers 106
God’s Thief 107
Walking at Day’s End 109
About the Author 111
Previous Publications
A New Ulster, “Early Morning in Highlandtown,” “Inclined Plane, Pulley, Wheel & Axle,” “Weeding the Bittersweet,” “The Stone in Your Chest,” “Shades at the Reunion”
BlazeVox, “Reckoning,” “Ghazal: Returning”
Chautauqua Review, “Matinee at the Shore”
Damfino Journal, “Gun Stories”
Foliate Oak, “Judgment,” “Preparations,” “I Can’t Get No”
Gargoyle, “Greyhounds”
Grey Borders, “Girls,” “Actor,” “Dancing at Lake Montebello,” “Homeleaving,” “Elegy for Alice,” “Love Drunk”
Grey Sparrow, “The Good Father,” “Engineer”
Highland Park Poetry Muses Gallery, “In Louisburgh, County Mayo, Thinking of Dublin”
In-flight Literary Magazine, “Suze in Midsummer,” “The Shadow of the Lost Object”
Irish Literary Review, “The Dying”
Journal of Applied Poetics, “Armistice Day”
Light Journal, “My Father’s War,” “My Mother on My Cousin’s Wedding Day”
Little Patuxent Review, “I Learned That Marilyn had Died”
Lost Sparrow: Porcupine, “Deep Midwinter After-Party”
Meat for Tea: the Valley Review, “Brantwood Lane Miscellany”
Nixes Mate Review, “Putnam Avenue in Spring”
Oddball Magazine, “Scattering Alice’s Ashes from the Pont D’Arcôle”
Old Frog Pond Farm Poem of the Month, July 2016, “Last Sunday in July”
Origami Poems Project, “Hollyhocks”
Paterson Literary Review, “Pâtissière”
Pen-in-Hand, “The Color of Her Volkswagen”
Poetry Pacific, “Walking at Day’s End”
Poetry Superhighway, “Biography”
63Channels, “Making Love to You Was Like Peeling,”