Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Robert Demaree- Two Poems


PAINTED OVER

At my old school
They’ve torn down the building where I worked,
Squat, low-ceilinged, renovated twice,
It did not fit the master plan,
Colonnades and courtyards.
Sometimes I see the architect downtown
And figure he must surely know.
But I say nothing.
They have also changed
Some ways of doing things,
Didn’t seem broken,
But I’ve been gone a while
And need have no opinion
Beyond a care for friends displaced.

At another school, years ago,
Boys in my Vergil class
Painted a mural on our classroom wall,
A Roman villa, skillful use
Of color and perspective.
One September I returned to find it gone,
The boys, now young men, dismayed.
People’s lives, I told them,
Have a way of getting
Painted over.


CUCUMBER AND ONION SALAD

At the lobster pound
Our grandchildren crack claws,
The fourth generation to feast at
Chauncey Creek.
Lobster is all they serve.
You can bring in beer and chips
From the convenience store
On Route One.
Across from us
A purple-bordered linen cloth
Dresses the picnic table:
Canapés, chilled Chardonnay,
Crystal stemware.
My mother would fix
Cucumber and onion salad,
Floating in vinegar,
Sugar, black pepper, ice cubes,
Served from a mayonnaise jar.
We recall that now,
Three generations of us,
And laugh, everyone
But me.

  
Robert Demaree is the author of three book-length collections of poems, including After Labor Day, published in April 2014 by Beech River Books.  In 2013 his poems received first place in competitions sponsored by the Poetry Society of New Hampshire and the  Burlington Writers Club He is a retired school administrator with ties to North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New Hampshire, where he lives four months of the year. His poems have appeared in over 150 periodicals. For further information see http://www.demareepoetry.blogspot.com  

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