Downtown, downeast Maine:
Tidal river at low tide:
Mud, sea gulls, old tires.
Brown-sea flower pots,
Gabled houses, pink lupins:
New Brunswick August.
Four-course lobster meal,
Sunset over Stanley Bridge,
Red and white lighthouse.
Did not attend a ceilidh.
Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Anne of Green Gables,
Cliffs, sand the color of rust:
Prince Edward Island.
A destination wedding,
Japanese girls on buses.
Can you fall in love
With the island but not Anne?
The answer is yes.
A writer put it this way:
“Wooden houses; blue, blue days.”
Itinerary:
We did not get to Scotland.
Cape Breton Island.
Boreal forests,
Blue seascape in the distance
On the Cabot Trail.
North of the causeway:
Highland Scots took it for home,
Road signs in Gaelic.
Bills, coins left over:
Canadian currency,
For use next summer.
2. Going to Florida
Troy, Carthage—bear right.
Highway sign in the Sandhills,
Towns named for losers.
North Carolina:
Quakers, German pietists
Should have hung in there.
South Carolina:
Cross, marchers, a nation’s flag:
Times not forgotten.
On I-95:
Abandoned outlet village,
Giant billboards blank.
Six lanes of traffic,
Seventy-five miles an hour:
Seniors hang on tight.
Hummocks, banyan trees,
Dense, damp, dark green parrot home:
Miami autumn.
Pollo Tropical:
This is the third world she says.
The new world, say I.
Florida junket:
We did not see the ocean.
Hours in a small room.
Not a pleasure trip:
A need to see her brother,
While there was still time.
Epilogue:
Then five months later:
Small memorial service,
The funeral home
On Dixie Highway, Route One,
Interment in Bradenton.
After the service:
Wheelchair ramp, up on its side,
No longer needed.
Robert Demaree is the author of four book-length collections of poems, including Other Ladders, published in June 2017 by Beech River Books. His poems received first place in competitions sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the Burlington Writers Club, and have appeared in over 150 periodicals. A retired educator, he resides in Wolfeboro, N.H. and Burlington, N.C.
Troy, Carthage—bear right.
Highway sign in the Sandhills,
Towns named for losers.
North Carolina:
Quakers, German pietists
Should have hung in there.
South Carolina:
Cross, marchers, a nation’s flag:
Times not forgotten.
On I-95:
Abandoned outlet village,
Giant billboards blank.
Six lanes of traffic,
Seventy-five miles an hour:
Seniors hang on tight.
Hummocks, banyan trees,
Dense, damp, dark green parrot home:
Miami autumn.
Pollo Tropical:
This is the third world she says.
The new world, say I.
Florida junket:
We did not see the ocean.
Hours in a small room.
Not a pleasure trip:
A need to see her brother,
While there was still time.
Epilogue:
Then five months later:
Small memorial service,
The funeral home
On Dixie Highway, Route One,
Interment in Bradenton.
After the service:
Wheelchair ramp, up on its side,
No longer needed.
Robert Demaree is the author of four book-length collections of poems, including Other Ladders, published in June 2017 by Beech River Books. His poems received first place in competitions sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the Burlington Writers Club, and have appeared in over 150 periodicals. A retired educator, he resides in Wolfeboro, N.H. and Burlington, N.C.
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