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Roadmap to far off lands...

Point Judith, Rhode Island
by Marc Widershien


Pt. Judith lies
on the western entrance to the Narragansett Bay.
The brown and white octagonal tower
once brightened the way for mariners
but now attracts only hobbyists.
  Today, the surf breaks so silently on the rocks,
and there is an outcropping
under the whirling tides.
"P'int Judy, p'int," legend has it:
a distress call before shipwreck.
  Below my feet--a lone black sandal
lies on the tide-soaked pebbles--
maybe a fisherman's from town.
  Gulls nest on rusty rooftops, and flecked white butterflies
flirt with telephone lines.
Humpbacked rocks,
stone piers, surfers--
it is not the end of the world
I track, but its continuation.
  Especially when I hear the robins chat,
when I track the redheaded finch,
or stand on the shaved green slopes
then I know how even the purple clover
dandelions and rosehips are the aromas
  I want to seize.
But most of all I want to remember--
the deer grazing in the meadow by the sea,
bounding through the brush
onto the road below.


July 3, 2001 Galilee, Rhode Island



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