4 Anthony Street, Provincetown

4 Anthony Street, Provincetown  

Jonquil, lily, bearded iris,

rose’s pink scent wafts

white curtains flutter like eyelids

move in peaceful sleep.

Salt smell and blackbird calls—high, sweet—

blow in with the wind

ruffling and shushing a mocking

bird’s sharp litany.           

His plagiarized copycat list

twits, note after note,

as the sun plays shadow patterns,

waves  on stones below.

I think of the ocean lapping,

licking boat’s thin skin;

I think of a place unanchored

from all that I have been.

c. 2006 Kara Provost; published in Nests, Kara Provost, Finishing Line Press: 2006.