Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire

This week’s poem by Jim Donnelly explores a wonderful memory of a nursing home resident about her summer nights at the Old Orchard Beach pier.

 

St. Madeleine of Biddeford

By Jim Donnelly

 

Madeleine, Dear Madeleine

of the supplicating hands

and bleeding heart

dear, debilitated Madeleine

joie de vivre her highest art

Madeleine of the nursing home show

still singing

as we pack our things

and exit the door below

a glass slipper tap

and a wish from here

Basie and Dorsey

at the Old Orchard pier

under the stars

they danced ’til late

that elusive song of romance

after driving up in the Ford V8

to their own Savoy “at a glance”

fatigued but buzzed with the Hit Parade

after the grind at the mill

and the pier looked as if

it could partner the moon

with zoot suits and flounces and frills

the waitresses and fishermen

the kids from the family farms

shop clerks, mill hands, Newberry girls

honing their dance hall charms

there were the realtors, the hotel-keeps,

the bank officers’ wives

strivers, schemers, the drunks and the dreamers

all looking to jazz up their lives

and when over her wheelchair

I say “It sounds like a movie

Madeleine, it does”

a ballroom luster floods her eyes

as she replies

“It probably was.”

 

Dennis Camire can be reached at [email protected]