Martha's Vineyard by Charlotte Mandel

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Martha's Vineyard
by
Charlotte Mandel

Cars like a litter of mongrels

nuzzle the seagrass rim of the cove.

Trailing our hosts

we set up a row of shortlegged

canvas chairs and face the water

each with a book angled

on jack-knifed knees.

Quiet rules this blue saucer.

No wind-eroded cliffs

or crashing breakers.

Sibilant surf,

tidal broomstraws stirring

unbroken shells.

Seven white gulls

bob like inflated bath toys

A windsurfer labors his single wing

striped in purple and flamingo pink.

On the sand a lone gull

prints a cuneiform track

towards me on reedy legs

crop bulging.

Fingerlings dart staccato feast

in the bay. Feeding’s easy

for both of us this weekend

guests of the vineyard.

I tip my straw hat, admire

the way the filled pouch of his body

idles in the sun

wingless, so smoothly

do resting feathers conform.

Charlotte Mandel is winner of the 2012 New Jersey Poets Prize of $1,000, and was featured reader at the Journal of New Jersey Poets presentation at County College of Morris in April, 2012. As a suburban wife and mother, she wrote no poetry until her true poetic self came to the fore in midlife. That self has now accomplished the publication of seven books of poetry, including two poem-novellas of feminist biblical revision; literary articles; essays on the role of cinema in the life and work of poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle); publishing and editing Saturday's Women, the Eileen W. Barnes Award Anthology; teaching—she recently retired after several years teaching poetry writing at Barnard College Center for Research on Women; and earning awards that include more than a dozen fellowships and residencies. Learn more about Charlotte at www.charlottemandel.com.

canda:
Wonderful imagery. We think we recognize the cove. Beautifully done. C&A
Posted 08/28/2012 07:19 PM

transitions:
the gulls Do look like inflated bath toys! what a poem,- filled with wonderful imagery... thank you, especially from those of us far away from an ocean ~ you have brought it to us. Judy
Posted 08/28/2012 10:52 AM

pwax:
Beautifully done! So visual. I love the litter of mongrels, nuzzling the seagrass.
Posted 08/28/2012 09:46 AM

penhart:
Love your poem, Charlotte! I've always wanted to visit the Vineyard, and now you've taken me there. I can just hear that "sibilant surf" and see those gulls and fingerlings.
Posted 08/28/2012 07:20 AM

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