From the Desk of … Lindsay Raspi
This week I asked poet Lindsay Raspi to share a picture and talk about one item on her desk.
The silver box on the top right was my grandfather Tony’s toolbox. He worked as a machinist at Bethlehem Steel when it operated in Baltimore. The workers slept on asbestos cots, and Tony died of total organ failure at the age of 60, when I was 10. He was the youngest of 16 children in an immigrant family. I’m pretty sure his mother’s name was Pasqua, I remember him saying it meant Easter. The box used to be coated in turquoise enamel. My house burned up in 2015, I was trapped in it, and this box and its contents were among the only inanimate survivors. The enamel was charred so my father buffed that off and ran it through the parts washer at his car shop. It currently holds a few childhood photographs and some necklaces I rarely wear. – Lindsay Raspi
Erin Dorney is the poetry editor for Third Point Press and lives in Minnesota. Follow her on Twitter at @edorney or learn more at www.erindorney.com.
Latest posts by Erin Dorney (see all)
- From the Desk of … Camille Rankine - July 26, 2016
- From the Desk of … Janice Lee - July 19, 2016
- From the Desk of … Chloe Benjamin - July 5, 2016
