Whose Day Is It, Anyway?

I’ll be MIA for the next several days on this blog, so I’ll just leave you with this poem by the incomparable Diane DiPrima, from the book Avanti Popolo! Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus.

Whose Day Is It, Anyway?

Pola Negri Day?
Joe DiMaggio Day?
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Lawrence Ferlinghetti Day?
Tina Modotti Day?
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Carlo Tresca Day?
Gregory Corso Day?
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Tony Bennett Day!
Phil Rizzuto Day
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Domenico Mallozzi Day!
Sal Maglie Day
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Al Pacino Day.
Frank Sinatra Day.
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Francis Coppola Day.
Chick Correa Day.
Sacco and Vanzetti Day!

Robert DiNiro Day
Guy Lombardo Day
Sacco and Vanzetti Day.

Joseph Stella Day
Frank Stella Day

Philip Lamantia Day
Tina Modotti Day

Frankie Laine Day
Mario Lanza Day
Riker’s Island Day

Joe Pesci
Brian De Palma
Sacco and Vanzetti Day

Frank Capra of Happy Endings & Leftist Leanings Day!
That’s one we could use.

Il Giorno di Leslie Scalapino!
Il Giorno di Ben Gazzara!
Il Giorno di Sacco e Vanzetti!

Il Giorno di Martino Scorsese.
Il Giorno di Tomaso Centalella
Tutti giorni sono giorni di Sacco e Vanzetti

Is it your day, Rocky Graziano,
idol of my teen years
with your thick voice on the radio
“It was a good fight
I was in good condition
Hello, Ma”
(I got your autograph at a grocery store on Spring St)

Madonna?
Madonna Mia or as we used to say
“Marron!”

Back in the Day
It was Connie Francis Day

Then a few years later it was
Julie Bovasso Day
Julie doing “The Maids”
in a tiny downtown theatre,
turning gender & theatre around/1952

Whose day is it anyway?
Maybe we could rename it
every year–

Then maybe today would be
Tony La Russa Day?
Carpe Diem, Tony!
You never know, you know?

Joe Montana
Maria Mazziotti Gillan
Phil Cavaretta
Ani Di Franco
Vick Damone
Jimmy Giuffre
Whose Day is it?
Alan Alda
Joe Lovano

Judy Canova Day
Her loud voice on the big wooden radio

Jimmy Durante
“Good night, Mrs. Calabash–
(or whatever that name was he said
week after week
I never figured it out–)
Goodnight, Mrs. Calabash
wherever you are”
And the grown-ups would turn off the radio
and we’d go to bed

O It’s Louis Prima Day, for sure!
We gotta have one of those!
Or wait

Who knew it could be
Frank Zappa Day
Was he actually born on this planet?

Aha! I’ve got it–
Yogi Berra Day
Yogi Berra Day

Yogi Berra Day
Tina Modotti Day

Yogi Berra Day
Sacco and Vanzetti Day
Yogi Berra Day

Sacco and Vanzetti Day
Yogi Berra Day
Sacco and Vanzetti Day

You choose

******
(Have a happy Sacco e Vanzetti Day, a Tina Modotti Day, a Joe Ettor Day, a Philip Lamantia Day, a Carlo Tresca Day, and a Leo Martello Day! —Lubu)