THE ITALIAN SUPERSTITION
A hat placed on the bed, or
a bottle of olive oil
smashed on the floor,
my hands slick with its skin.
The aging widow furiously marks herself with the cross,
muttering Catholic rhetoric in her impatient Italian tongue,
as she is dreadfully certain
misfortune has made its way
into her home.
“Do not let the broom touch your feet
if you wish to get married one day,”
her maternal crow.
On the Ides of March,
“Today, please walk backwards out of the front door when you leave.”
She reminds me twice more before I go.
I still forget.
Katherine Fischer is an English teacher and writer in Vermont, where she lives with her husband and cat Ives. She and her husband met through his mother, who was her Italian professor in college. Katherine’s family comes from the Amalfi coast and north of Lucca. She writes about family and love, among other things, and is particularly interested in working within the creative non-fiction genre. Katherine is returning to creative writing after a multi-year hiatus.
OVUNQUE SIAMO 