Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire
This week’s poem is by Dave Morrison from Camden. His most recent book is “Cancer Poems” by Juke Books.
Old Orchard Beach
By Dave Morrison
A gig for two nights at a club by the beach
Walking in sand with our sharp Cuban heels
Waves in the distance, stars within reach
A gig for two nights at a club by the beach
We’re up from the city, they can tell by our speech
We smoke cigarettes by the Ferris wheel
Black leather jackets, a club by the beach
Walking in sand with our sharp Cuban heels.
The gigs take us farther away from our home
in Boston, a ramshackle house by the Pike
We’re looking for work with a fine-tooth comb
The gigs take us farther away from our home
From Portland to Amherst to Hartford we roam
We’ll play any club that has sound and lights
Some nights we forget that we have a home
in Boston, a ramshackle house by the Pike.
This week we headline a bar by the sand
Next week New Haven, then Cambridge, then Maine
Forty minutes on stage, four hours in the van
This week we headline a bar by the sand
We’re writing new songs, hatching new plans
but any momentum feels hard to sustain
Days run through our fingers, just like the sand
Next week New Haven, then Cambridge, then Maine,
then Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,
Methuen, Northampton, Somerville,
then Boston, then Gloucester, then we start again,
Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,
If we don’t get some airplay, if the crowds start to thin
We’ll run out of money, we’ll run out of will
Beverly, Manchester, Worcester, Lynn,
Methuen, Northampton, Somerville.
Dennis Camire can be reached at denniscamire@hotmail.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.