Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire

This week’s poem is by Carol-Lynn Rossel of Winthrop.

 

The Island of Yellow Houses

Islesboro, Maine

By Carol-Lynn Rossel

 

There was a day they didn’t roam:

up-islanders beyond the cove,

moneyed bunch below,

their cottages behind stern signs

and walls piled high by those

who live above, who toil on bleak

off-season weeks before the blasted snow.

 

Their houses, sturdy, squared and strong

proceed along the circling route

past general store and thirty-four graves.

Capes and clapboards, shingled, salt boxed,

built before affluent masses, some before the town,

with elbow room and solitude.

 

So many of one hue, invoking sun with creams and gold

and buttered blondes and school bus screams,

they challenge fierce gunmetal skies

when tides and ice conspire to grind

and claim one’s hard worn soul.

 

These yellow hopes beside the roads

diminish as the road congests and

yards and lawns define bright lives.

Except for one – a Federal home

perched high upon a rise to spy

the tides, its many rooms asleep

until summer comes.

 

Dennis Camire can be reached at denniscamire@hotmail.com

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