At night 

curves in the road
multiply

when there are no
street lights

on those posted- 
25 miles per hour 
and they mean it
two lanes

Excessive drinking
is what the young
and the feckless islanders
do

tourists as well
willfully riding
their motorcycles

rented mopeds
ATV’s

dune buggies

without helmets
where none are
supposed to go

Their roadside
memorials are
everywhere

homemade paint chipped
white crosses losing
their luster
 

Death Comes to the Harborside 

Historic turn of the last 
century hotel and lounge’s
self-immolation produced

smoke and flames
visible on mainland
miles away

We wonder what happened
to the speakeasy ghosts

the good time girls

flappers and spirits
of the murdered and
those who died of natural
causes

Days later numbered
striped cue balls
are found unearthed
from rubble along with
a long forgotten
floor safe

Marked cards inside

Tally sheets and chits
IOU’s dated and signed
100 plus years ago

 
A community of crows

gathers in yew trees
bordering the inland
cemetery

The oldest headstone
date back to 1700’s
but the crows are timeless

By dusk there are
hundreds of them
silently inhabiting the trees

 
Surfing the Hurricane

A few 12 packs
and surfing the storm
seems like a great idea

a plan

“Oh, man, look at
the swell”

The rip tides
and the submerged
rock

the killer waves

 
The Chainsaw Artist

works nights in
a barn lit by flickering
kerosene lamps

Such an uncertain light
for carving dread beasts
never seen anywhere in
this world except
in his mind

When they are finished
the artist hides his creations
amid the clutching brambles

the decaying drooping trees
where hikers come upon them
in unexpected places

Unearthing these creatures
instills the kind of fear
that can never be erased

leads to illness
and despair

The woods feel haunted now

alive with unseemly beings
wherever the artist has been 
 
We can hear incessant

tolling of church bells
from the far side
of the great salt pond
where no structures
are

Such a mournful sound
propelled across
the surface by a steady
off-shore breeze

We listen wondering
why we are being
summoned from so far
away