Cooking Spaghetti

My mother cooked spaghetti

When she made her fish croquettes,

The salmon from a can, a dish

One easily forgets.

 

Ronzoni was her pasta brand;

The box was blue and bold.

This never varied, even though

Some other brands were sold.

 

The water boiled inside a pot

And when the time arrived

To drop in the spaghetti,

We were somehow all deprived

 

Of a meal Italians would condone

Because – you might just laugh –

To make the cooking easier,

She broke the strands in half!

 

It never felt quite right to me,

Yet when I cook today,

I understand exactly why

She made her dish that way.

 

You have to force spaghetti down,

Unless your pot is huge,

So breaking it in half is like

A clever subterfuge.

 

I cook it in the proper way

And haven’t backed down yet,

But I still can’t get my spouse to try

The go-with fish croquette!