The water in the Gulf of Maine is deep blue cold
coming in One lighthouse blinks at another from across
the sound Small white needles of fishing boats
split the surface leaving a wedge widening behind them
Darkness comes early here slams the world shut
cars rush home along 295 Lights go on in the houses
“You won’t have any trouble there on the island,”
my uncle tells me “The water temperature is 40 degrees”
“We’ve had snow We’ve had frost Not enough
to bother with although it won’t stand much longer
that way”
He tells me about the pump how water settles
in the chambers and with a good hard freeze
the metal expands and cracks
I know I’ve made a thousand-dollar journey to save
a two-hundred-fifty-dollar pump
***
I drive past my old high school and then the middle
school where friends held forth The place is a-buzz
with activity but not my activity
I pause on the Boulevard and gaze across the bay
at the bristling city see the Old North school where
my father entered his elegant letters in lined notebooks
Munjoy Hill and the Observatory which always
seemed too small to observe much of anything still
tourists come climb the spiral stairway to the top
***
At the island I inspect the new bathroom notice
the soft light streaming through the skylight squeeze
out the sponge beneath the hot water spigot wipe up
moisture on the floor
Workmen have inhabited this space have used the stove
to warm up their meals In the living room are two
quilted pads covered with sawdust and boot prints
an old paint-splattered radio its antennae tipped quizzically
to pick up tunes
***
I go up the road to talk to Chris his son Cyrus plays
on the floor and watches TV We talk about the lobster
industry the season’s catch summers here on the island
He asks if I’ll come here to live when I retire or if
I’ve grown used to life “away” I gaze out the window
at the bare trees steel-colored water churning
There is silence between us
Joann Gardner is an associate professor of English at Florida State University. She has published in a variety of journals, including Seneca Review, Connecticut Review, Crazyhorse and Louisiana Literature. She has had artist residencies at Villa Montalvo and The Blue Mountain Center and is a member of the Squaw Valley Community of Writers. Her chapbook, La Florida, won the Weldon Kees Prize for Poetry and was published by Backwaters Press.