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.
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