Martha's Vineyard by Charlotte Mandel

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.

Photo credit: Richard Mandel

Charlotte Mandel lives in New Jersey. Though she didn't embrace poetry until midlife, she is the author of eleven collections and her awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award from Brooklyn College, the New Jersey Poets Prize, and two fellowships from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Charlotte's published work also includes the Eileen W. Barnes Award anthology of older women poets, Saturday's Women, and a series of essays on the role of cinema in the life and work of Hilda Doolittle. Learn more about Charlotte at 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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