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Red Gates

Summers on the Rocks

By: - Oct 03, 2018

Red Gates

Down narrow road
Path through the woods
Through memory lane
Now more houses
Same old cottages
A few mansions
Back then just one
Drive ends by the sea
Spacious lawn
Views of the Bay
Treacherous rocks
Once scrambled over
Kid in every sense
Like a goat
Leaping all about
So sure footed
During War years
Summers in the cottage
Now rebuilt
Not like it was
In vintage snapshots
Primitive back then
Icebox and kerosene
The Iceman Cometh
For real back then
Slung on his back
Big huge block
Melt for a week
Chips for us
Sucked like popsicles
My world seemed vast
Those daunting rocks
Learning to swim
Such cold water
Didn’t much matter
Looking about
This recent visit
Much seemed the same
Stone Hoffman House
Their girls each morning
Raised the flag
Red white and blue
Stiff oceam breeze
Proof through the night
Pole now gone
Next to us Hung’s
He ran a restaurant
She sang opera
Son served in Korea
The forgotten war
Friends and neighbors
Cousin Chippy and
Spooky brother Edward
It slipped he said
With jerky gesture
In your face
Lurking about
Strange back then
More rivals than friends
Family feuds
Dropped out of sight
We moved away
Not that far really
To Annisquam
Such a different place
Missed Red Gates
Where living was easy
Fresh and breezy
Summers on the rocks
Selling painted mussels
And lemonade
Five cents a glass
Making some change
For long hike to
Grocery store for a pop
Orange crush
Now long gone
Of olden days
So be this song