Essex Boatyard by Brent Jensen
REVELATIONS
A bicycle seat
by the middle
granite step
to the back stoop
a bit of driveway
in front of the Neon
the top of an orange
and blue motorcycle
lobster pot buoys
along the fence
What happens
if you hit this?
I don't know
but don't play
with buttons
on my machines!
Nice to contemplate mist
leaf free branches
and evergreens
Ice cakes return
to the Mill River
Butler is a white
Basset type
with short brown ears
He climbs snow drifts
and trots along up there
wondering why people
fail to join him
He also likes to stop
for bird song
and water sound
Forty knot spray
whipping through the gap
horizontal
turquoise kayak
on the mud
up right again
this penultimate day
before Equinox
Well I went over to Essex
and I bought horse feed
because we have six
or eight deer
in our back yard
They are so thin!
One's a fawn!
A doe came onto the patio
to eat leftover bird seed
They are so hungry!
I know you aren't
supposed to feed them
They are vegetarians
but they eat horse feed
Ninety bucks!
I had to!
You had to!
--Adelia
Melissa de Haan Cummings
17-19 March 2015
Melissa de Haan Cummings majored in French and English Literature at Bryn Mawr. She has published poetry in a number of journals. She describes her interests as including, “much small boating around Cape Ann, love of Charles Olson, Hatha yoga practice since 1969.”
