Family Business by Laura Modigliani

Grandmother wove fine
filaments of glass to hide
her saw-toothed windows.

Our history is heat and light.

Grandfather’s fibers still blanket his
beat-up bookshelf, school-boy desk,
acoustic insulators, fabrics used en masse.

Synthetic cells diffuse and float.

Uncle, spin me a boat hull,
a fishing rod, instruments
of function and flight.

You said ground glass was translucent.

Vertical lines splatter
Venetian blinds, opaque,
Pollock-style.

The basement drips resin still.

Mother’s memory is
infrared wavelengths,
photographic negatives.

DaVinci dust, Dad.

A scroll of words, stretched
layers of parallel strands
harden and hang.

Lost names meld through prayer.

Brother’s heart is double-sealed
inside a Plexiglas® case. Blood
perforates, punctuates.

The den is filled with invention, 2 by 4s.

I was left with a Lucite chest
filled with curtains, veils, two lions
climbing a castle beneath this moon,

this welded family crest.


		Laura Modigliani
		Family Business
		Grandmother wove fine filaments of glass to hide her saw-toothed windows. Our history is heat and light. Grandfather’s fibers still blanket his beat-up bookshelf, school-boy desk, acoustic insulators, fabrics used en masse. Synthetic cells diffuse and float. Uncle, spin me a boat hull, a fishing rod, instruments of function and flight. You said ground glass was translucent. Vertical lines splatter Venetian blinds, opaque, Pollock-style. The basement drips resin still. Mother’s memory is infrared wavelengths, photographic negatives. DaVinci dust, Dad. A scroll of words, stretched layers of parallel strands harden and hang. Lost names meld through prayer. Brother’s heart is double-sealed inside a Plexiglas® case. Blood perforates, punctuates. The den is filled with invention, 2 by 4s. I was left with a Lucite chest filled with curtains, veils, two lions climbing a castle beneath this moon, this welded family crest.
		Laura Modigliani holds an MFA in Poetry from The City College of New York. She is a 2007 Pushcart Prize nominee and the 2005 recipient of the Jack Zucker Memorial Prize in Poetry. Her work has appeared in MiPOesias Magazine, Fascicle, Skyline, The One Three Eight, sic journal, and Poetry in Performance. She teaches undergraduate English and Speech courses as an adjunct faculty member for CUNY. A native New Yorker, she has also worked as an associate editor for Museums Magazines and a freelance writer for Time Out New York.
		© Laura Modigliani All Rights Reserved