Pine Barrens On Cape Cod

By John Grey

Follow the glacier,
15,000 years to the rear,
through pine barren,
shrubby oaks,
low-bush blueberry heath.

 

The soil’s as poor
as a dead man,
so what grows
clings to life
rather than actively
promotes it.

 

But the land’s
as necessary as it is raw,
long since scraped of lushness,
but filling in the landscape gaps
with more stubbornness
than beauty,
bereft of dreams
but not practicality.

 

The glaciers are long gone.
But their wake
is not a wake.

 

John Grey is an Australian poet, US resident, recently published in Soundings East, Dalhousie Review and Connecticut River Review. Latest book, “Leaves On Pages” is available through Amazon.