Family Scrapbook: One Family's Journey Through Time

By Tanya Mills

Follow one family's journey across time through four generations, told through poetry. Experience their joys, heartaches, grief, and sadness as you connect with a story about the good and bad sides of family life throughout the generations.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9798350916911

Book preview

First Generation

The Pescatellis

ADOPTION (ALDO PESCATELLI)

I was a three-year-old boy

They told me I had a family now

On an island in the sea

As we traveled there by boat

The carer spoke endlessly

How beautiful, how lucky

Suddenly we were there

Poor woman and her young daughters

Smiling, clothed in rags

Waiting for someone

I hoped it was someone else

I already knew I didn’t want this family

At the shore they passed me around

From one to the other

Cradling me like a baby

So I bit the most annoying one

She had it coming

I was not what they bargained for

CHILDHOOD DREAMS

(MARIA PESCATELLI)

I was seven years old

I was a good girl

I helped my mother with the other kids

I went to confession

A young girl, living sinlessly

Full of love for everyone

I wrapped my long braids around my head

I was getting better at it

Soon my mother wouldn’t have to help me at all

I stared at my reflection in the cracked mirror

My small, slightly slanted eyes staring back at me

Wondering if I would ever meet my future husband in this place

I sat on the edge of my cot

I had no toys

I cradled my arms as though I were holding a baby

Imagined the future

A loving husband, a house full of babies to love

Lapping water in the distance

WINE (ALDO PESCATELLI)

I was maybe fourteen years old, a young man

When my friend shoved the bottle at me

Have some, he said

It will make you feel good.

I wanted to feel good

Instead of angry and disappointed with life

I tipped the bottle to my lips

The sweet nectar began to flow down my throat

It burned my throat going down

But I kept going

I wanted to feel good

So every day I did it again

I was maybe fourteen years old, a young man

When my friend shoved the bottle at me

PRETTY (MARIA PESCATELLI)

I was fifteen years old

Becoming a woman

I stared at my long, loose hair in the mirror

I longed to be pretty

But I knew how God hated vanity

So I averted my eyes from the reflection

I saw him again the other day

As I went to fetch water by the shore

He was carrying a half-drunk jug of wine

He smiled and winked, as usual

I was a good girl

So I didn’t smile or wink back

But maybe this was him

Maybe we could make a home together

Full of kids and love

Maybe he would talk to me next time

Maybe we could have a coffee together

Maybe I was pretty, after all

KIDS (ALDO PESCATELLI)

I was still in my twenties

A fisherman who loved his booze

Then I married her

A good Catholic girl

She starts popping out kids

One every three years

I never wanted kids, really

But that’s what they expect

You get married, have kids

I stagger home from another day of fishing and drinking

My eyes a blur while my wife tells me

The kids don’t have enough to eat

We were poor

I knew that

I also knew I wasn’t giving up my booze

Even for these kids

These damn kids

I curse the day they were born

AFRICA (MARIA PESCATELLI)

I was 46 years old at the time

I was a mother of five children, ages 15 to 3

I loved them all