Poem: Provincetown August 16, 2018
July 15, 2021
Provincetown August 16, 2018
after Frank O’Hara’s “The Day Lady Died” (1964)
Afternoon at Land’s End
boys everywhere
stopping and shopping
picking up charcoal
filling cars with gas
lining up for ice cream
flying through town
on clunky bicycles, dressed only in
Speedos
Good night, Mom, a bass voice called to me
from a porch the night before
Good night.
I go for a swim alone at
Race Point, my friends want to
eat lobster,
buy t-shirts in town
The water, the ocean,
cold but calm and I
can float with my toes
in the air like I always
do, unaware of the
Great White Shark,
who waits until tomorrow
to make the news
In the car hot from the sun,
I plug in my phone and read
Aretha
is
gone.
Later
in town, on Commercial, friends found,
a sea-glittery float in the
Carnival Parade passes, two bearded mermaids
dancing, their speakers blaring
R-E-S-P-E-C-T
And we dance, too.
@Susan Thomsen 2021
Photo by Susan Thomsen. Carnival parade, Provincetown, Mass., 2018.
Links
"The Day Lady Died," by Frank O'Hara, at the Poetry Foundation
The Poetry Friday roundup for July 16, 2021, will take place at the blog Nix the comfort zone.
"[Photographer] Joel Meyerowitz Reflects on the Magic of Provincetown," at Aperture