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A caller complained because a wrecker stopped on County Road because ducks were crossing
the road on June 12. Then on June 14 police controlled traffic while a snapping turtle crossed Huston Road.
— from Police Notes, Gorham, Maine, July 2015
This is why I live in my small Maine town,
a place where the hip coffee place only lasted a year,
where citizens show up to city council and committee meetings
to passionately debate zoning changes, fireworks ordinances, potholes.
If you email or call your town officials, they get back to you.
There's rarely a line at City Hall to renew your dog license or register your car.
The mailman made friends with my dog long ago.
The neighbors notice anything new in my yard.
And somewhere on a fine summer day, on his way to pick up a dead car,
the driver of a big wrecker caps his coffee and stops in the middle of a busy road
so some heedless ducks can waddle importantly across.
From Fancy Meeting You Here (Moon Pie Press,December 2015).
Used here with the author's permission.
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Alice N. Persons is the editor and publisher of Moon Pie Press, established in 2003, which publishes work by poets from all over the country and now has 119 books in its catalog. Author of five collections herself, Alice lives in Westbrook, Maine with two cats and a dog, all rescues, and serves on the board of the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland. Alice loves painting, holidays, travel, baking, and Maine in all seasons.
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Lori Levy:
Love this picture of small town life.
Posted 10/09/2018 11:44 PM
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barbsteff:
Good narrative. Even in medium-size cities like Milwaukee WI traffic may stop for ducklings, etc. And there are annual stories of policement or public works employees rescuing ducklings from storm drains, into which they've fallen.
Posted 10/09/2018 12:29 PM
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rhonasheridan:
What alovely town full of lovely people. Thank you for being one of them.r
Posted 10/09/2018 11:57 AM
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bbatcher:
Once in Westport, we were heading out one evening to give our daughters, then 5 and 2, their first taste of Maine lobster, when we had to stop the car to let a family of raccoons slowly amble across in the beam of our headlights. That was followed by 3 decades of annual trips to small Maine towns, of lobster shacks, and of stopping the car for various parades of furred and feathered families.
Posted 10/09/2018 07:53 AM
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Charly:
Do love Maine, especially the NE towns.
Posted 10/09/2018 07:52 AM
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wordartdjc:
Interesting take on the size of your city. Most of us just seem to stay in the place where we are born.
Posted 10/09/2018 07:50 AM
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Larry Schug:
I'm happy to make your poetic acquaintance, Alice. I'm enjoying the images you've planted in my consciousness this morning.
Posted 10/09/2018 07:20 AM
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