In verse: Maine places and people

Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by Dave Morrison from Camden. His most recent book is “Cancer Poems” by Juke Books.

Old Orchard Beach

By Dave Morrison

A gig for two nights at a club by the beach

Walking in sand with our sharp Cuban heels

Waves in the distance, stars within reach

A gig for two nights at a club by the beach

We’re up from the city, they can tell by our speech

We smoke cigarettes by the Ferris wheel

Black leather jackets, a club by the beach

Walking in sand with our sharp Cuban heels.

The gigs take us farther away from our home

in Boston, a ramshackle house by the Pike

We’re looking for work with a fine-tooth comb

The gigs take us farther away from our home

From Portland to Amherst to Hartford we roam

We’ll play any club that has sound and lights

Some nights we forget that we have a home

in Boston, a ramshackle house by the Pike.

This week we headline a bar by the sand

Next week New Haven, then Cambridge, then Maine

Forty minutes on stage, four hours in the van

This week we headline a bar by the sand

We’re writing new songs, hatching new plans

but any momentum feels hard to sustain

Days run through our fingers, just like the sand

Next week New Haven, then Cambridge, then Maine,

then Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,

Methuen, Northampton, Somerville,

then Boston, then Gloucester, then we start again,

Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,

If we don’t get some airplay, if the crowds start to thin

We’ll run out of money, we’ll run out of will

Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,

Methuen, Northampton, Somerville.

Dennis Camire can be reached at [email protected]

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