STREET TALK
on my daily walk
to the dock each morning
before winter
falls hard and fast—
snow and ice, wind howling
off the shore, I talk with neighbors
raking leaves, mounting bikes
for a late season ride, walking
dogs, setting up pickle ball
courts, conversation
from a distance these days,
you choose which side—
sometimes masks, sometimes not.
Talk moves from sightings
of the great blue heron
stalking with lightning strikes
to the eagles, talons poised,
scanning with that perfect vision
waiting for a ripple
or a shift in the flow
on to the pandemic and politics,
topics that will be front and center
into the new year. For now
it’s masks, social distance,
and hope, floating in the air—
I can smell it.
Marc Swan’s latest collection, all it would take, was published in May 2020 by tall-lighthouse (UK). Poems forthcoming in Gargoyle, The Stony Thursday Book, Queen’s Quarterly, Chiron Review,among others. He lives in coastal Maine with his wife Dd, a maker and yoga teacher.