Whose Day Is It Anyway?

Joey Skee (October 08, 2011)

Poet Diana di Prima offers alternative Italian-American heroes to Columbus.

“Whose Day Is It, Anyway?”

Diane di Prima [2]

The Poet Mulls over Some of the Choices

(from Avanti Popolo: Italian-American Writers Sail Beyond Columbus [3], 2008)

Pola Negri [4] Day?
Joe DiMaggio [5] Day?

Sacco and Vanzetti [6] Day!

Lawrence Ferlinghetti [7] Day?
Tina Modotti [8] Day?
Sacco and Vanzetti [9] Day!

Carlo Tresca [10] Day?
Gregory Corso [11] Day?
Sacco and Vanzetti [12] Day!

Tony Bennett [13] Day!
Phil Rizzuto [14] Day
Sacco and Vanzetti [15] Day!

Domenico Mallozzi [16] Day!
Sal Maglie [17] Day
Sacco and Vanzetti [18] Day!

Al Pacino [19] Day.
Frank Sinatra [20] Day.
Sacco and Vanzetti [21] Day!

Francis Coppola [22] Day.
Chick Corea [23] Day.
Sacco and Vanzetti [24] Day!

Robert DiNiro [25] Day
Guy Lombardo [26] Day

Sacco and Vanzetti [27] Day.

Joseph Stella [28] Day
Frank Stella [29] Day

Philip Lamantia [30] Day
Tina Modotti [31] Day

Frankie Laine [32] Day
Mario Lanza [33] Day
Riker’s Island [34] Day

Joe Pesci [35]
Brian De Palma [36]
Sacco and Vanzetti [37] Day

Frank Capra [38] of Happy Endings & Leftist Leanings Day!
That’s one we could use.

Il Giorno di Leslie Scalapino [39]!
Il Giorno di Ben Gazzara [40]!
Il Giorno di Sacco e Vanzetti [41]!

Il Giorno di Martino Scorsese [42].
Il Giorno di Tomaso Centolella [43]
Tutti giorni sono giorni di Sacco e Vanzetti [44]

Is it your day, Rocky Graziano [45],
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 [46]?
Madonna Mia or as we used to say
“Marron!”

Back in the Day
It was Connie Francis [47] Day

Then a few years later it was
Julie Bovasso [48] 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 [49] Day?

Carpe Diem, Tony!

You never know, you know?

Joe Montana [50]
Maria Mazziotti Gillan [51]

Phil Cavaretta [52]
Ani Di Franco [53]
Vick Damone [54]

Jimmy Giuffre [55]
Whose Day is it?
Alan Alda [56]
Joe Lovano [57]

Judy Canova [58] Day
Her loud voice on the big wooden radio

Jimmy Durante [59]

“Good night, Mrs. Calabash [60]–

(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 [61] Day, for sure!
We gotta have one of those!
Or wait

Who knew it could be
Frank Zappa [62] Day
Was he actually born on this planet?

Aha! I’ve got it–
Yogi Berra [63] Day
Yogi Berra [64] Day

Yogi Berra [65] Day
Tina Modotti [66]Day

Yogi Berra [67] Day
Sacco and Vanzetti [68]Day
Yogi Berra [69] Day

Sacco and Vanzetti [70] Day
Yogi Berra [71] Day
Sacco and Vanzetti [72] Day

You choose