Poems
During April, in recognition of National Poetry Month, The Martha's Vineyard Times will publish selected work of Island poets.
Published: April 16, 2009
A Brother Tells a Story
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A brother tells a story
Of his brother, whom he loves
But cannot understand.
He gave the guy a thousand-dollar bill
One time, and says there has been nothing in return.
But this doesn't seem to bother him.
The brother's angry, insecure
As elder brothers often are, withdrawn
From any sort of softness, much
As I have been. And yet this man,
Just two seats down the bar,
Who speaks to an old friend
With the honesty old friendship gives,
In tones of south-of-Boston workingman,
Illustrates a crucial show: Soft
Is hard turned inside-out; hard
Is soft enclosed.
Gerald Storrow, a published poet, divides his time between Boston and Chilmark, where he helps Nancy Aronie conduct the Writing From the Heart workshops.
The Single Mother
Have you seen the three-legged deer, my neighbor asks me
Norman told me a few weeks ago, I say
It is a doe and she always has two fawns with her
For four years she has been like this
In the woods near our houses
For four years she has survived
On those three legs and the two babies
What an inspiration, what courage
A woman of valor, I say.
And then I think: How would we feel
About a one-legged woman with new babies every year?
Chilmark resident Zelda Gamson is a retired sociologist.
