Rachele Mussolini’s Restaurant
Mussolini’s widow Rachele returned to Predappio after the war and ran a restaurant. (Benito Mussolini and His Survivors, Josephine Cowdery)
She thrusts her hands into slick noodles,
tomato chunks sifting through fat fingers,
clinging to her wrists,
staining the white apron red.
Outside the open window, an overgrown planter
blocks the sun. She tears tips of basic from the top--
the kitchen grows bright.
The thick blade glints as she chops;
the damp thatch sinks into the bowl. She
grates parmesan cheese, and watches it melt
into the simmering red. She delivers the pasta
to her hungry paisans.
The portrait shows Rachele's appearance before the end of the war, and her husband's death. I like the fact that this is what she looked like prior to the resignation of owning a restaurant, (a small one at that) after being disowned by her own country. The colors of the poem, red, white, and green represent Italy and the aggressive nature of the actions are the suppressed emotions of her post the trauma of her dictator husband's murder and her fall in society.
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