Tiasquam
By Fran Schumer
(to J.A.)
I ride through the forest
to buy chocolates
for a friend. Dozens
already on lengthy lines.
Like the former mayor said:
half the fun of going
to the movies is the line.
I eat leaves from turnips
just picked, sweet,
peppery, newly born;
pluck the lone blackberry
left in an open field,
blueberries by the handful
deeper along the trail
where the birds cannot see.
Two steers loaf, aloof;
chestnut horses whinny
and neigh, their gentle eyes
soothe me. After a while,
years, even — I, city bred,
feel more at home here
than in a crowd —
the silent tops of the oak trees
the holiest sight I know.
Fran Schumer writes poetry and prose from her home in Oak Bluffs. She won a Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing poetry fellowship in 2021, and was a winner of the Martha’s Vineyard Poet Laureate’s Contest in 2022. Her chapbook, “Weight,” is available on Amazon. A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., her heart belongs there and here.
Poets with a connection to Martha’s Vineyard are encouraged to submit poems to Poet’s Corner curator Laura Roosevelt at ldroosevelt@gmail.com.
