WINTER HAPPENINGS

With sleeves
rolled down
on the desolate beach
over Cape Cod
within reach of a tourist ship
we slip away after a drive
and survive the nights
of another December holiday
of art and worship of God
safely at the shore docks
with winter campers
under a red umbrella
by the river bed rocks
searching for shells
hearing cat calls
from a teenager
with a buzz cut
eating a vanilla Sunday
trying to play
rock music
resembling Mama Cass
on a nose flute and bells
from winter happenings
he 's a tall stranger or tourist
visiting here from McGill's
Montreal campus
as he watches me I'm shaping
an abstract geometric design
on the blank canvas
with my modernist painting
of butterflies and egrets
someone else folds post cards
on her Indian blanket
another says
he's a French palm reader
an eccentric dude
named Gemini
who lives by the astrology signs
and lies in the rough
within reach
of anyone who will supply
him with "Stuff"
likes a good time
and prophecies on the go,
watches me at my bench
and for a dime recites Rimbaud.