midsummer,
sitting on Nick's porch
sipping Nick's whiskey,
Nick, between women
gazing out over Eggemogin Reach,
Penobscot Bay, that exact
blue
____________young, and not knowing
how the sounds of breezes drift
through blue spruce, all rolling
joints, smoking menthol
cigarettes, Nick and some guy
playing bluegrass, me stitching
the torn kite
and the dogs
Nick's great dane Venka and Ringo
our springer pup, amuck
in the meadow, in love with
the field and each other and
running
____________and the artist who lived
in Nick's attic, painting the river
with cows standing in it
faces dappled in shadow
____________and the desultory,
real cows eyeing the dogs
in deep grass, the bluegrass guy
eyeing Nick
_________________and Nick
loose and laughing and singing
John Henry was a steel driving
man, and you, then
holding the string.
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