A Man with Two Canes
By Jonathan Burke
A man with two canes walks
across Ocean Park’s way.
Walking with his canes
on a lovely day.
The kind clerk looks, listens
to the troubles and the hurt
with a gentle patience
the eagle on her shirt.
A mechanic leans over —
an opened hood in his shop —
as if on a hinge
to see the engine block.
An old and weary man stands
in the tiresome queue.
His wife rushes in, there!
The boy with untied shoe.
Jonathan Burke lives year-round in Vineyard Haven and works at the Oak Bluffs library. Over the past few years, Jonathan has written a series of stories on mental illness for The MV Times.
Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to curator Laura Roosevelt at ldroosevelt@gmail.com.