Greetings from the North Atlantic--

This is a view from Pine Point Beach in Scarborough, where my neighbor and I walked for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. Light wind, 50 degrees, happy dogs bustling up to greet us . . . it was a beautiful afternoon, and I came home with a sunburn.

The outing was a lovely break in the midst of the million other things I was trying to get done . . . though the universe really did not want me to be working yesterday. At various points in the morning, when I was supposed to be buckling down, all of my favorite young people managed to call ("opening night tomorrow!"), text ("want to see my new tattoos?"), or suddenly appear on the doorstep ("cup of tea?"). Who could complain about that? Not me: I am always ready to drop everything to sit for an hour with darling Lucy or text-chortle over James's silly new body art (two "live" mosquitoes and a squashed one) or listen to Paul excitedly tell me about the books he's reading.

Today will be another uproar. This morning I've got to focus on visitor-prep, and then run a zoom meeting, and then shoehorn in some editing until my sister's family arrives. Last night's poetry group gave me a bunch of good suggestions about revising the draft I'm working on, and I really want to spend some time with it today. But I doubt that's going to happen. The Alcott House will be packed to the gills, my nephew will be ensconced in my study, and the poems will have to take a vacation.

Here's another piece from the new collection. The character in this poem is not based on anyone I know; he just came to me, fully formed, to break my heart.

To a School Janitor, Fired for Drunkenness

 

Dawn Potter

I miss your grin your cigarettes your

bow-legged grunt up down up 

down the stairwells your bucket clank-clanking

 

against the charnel walls your mop

hoicked under a meaty arm

your nod your swallowed tears a smear

 

of wet linoleum snail-trailing behind you

oh lord why do we shrink

such mountains

[from Accidental Hymn (Deerbrook Editions, forthcoming)]