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Paleo-Visitor
As a confirmed summer renter, I find a model in the Paleo-Indian, who, as far as we
know, may also have been a seasonal visitor. He, too, lived off the land --big mammals,
though-- and he did not, of course, own house or acreage.
In the Augusta State Museum, you can see meat caches,
Maine’s first buildings in stone. The P-I also left tips of spears and the occasional musk-
ox bone. No one knows why, but, after some time, almost all the big animals disappeared.
I’ve seasoned here, too, for three decades now, searching out summer houses --wood
ones, yes, but built on stone-- with a bit of land, two stories, and, preferably, a view.
When one rental passes, I hunt for another. I own nothing in Maine,
preferring to leave that to the various classes of what I loosely call “inhabitants” --I want
a better word. By Labor Day I’ve left behind some bags of
sorted trash and a last bit of seed for the birds. I've also spent a fair amount of cash.
As I drive the island roads, some people smile and wave “Hello.” Others look bullets
through my heart. The latter, hunters, perhaps, might remember (though I claim no right
or strong belief) that, well before their people came, the dates and names not always
clear, no more than are the definitions --native, local, renter, lobsterman, lawyer, Indian
chief-- there were others here.
And, before those, as far as scholars can keep track, other others, going back and back
even beyond the Paleo-Indian, twelve thousand years or so, to ...no one knows.
Ron Singer: Poems by Ron Singer (www.ronsinger.net) have previously appeared in publications including alba, Arlington Literary Journal (ArLiJo, featured poet, July, 2010), Borderlands: The Texas Poetry Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Contemporary Rhyme, elimae, Evergreen Review, The Hampden-Sydney Poetry Review, New Works Review (featured poet, Fall 2008), Poetry Midwest, Waterways: Poetry in the Mainstream, The Windsor Review, and Word Riot. Some of these poems have been set to music, and three are included in the 2009 anthology, Poetic Voices Without Borders-2. Singer is currently working on Uhuru Revisited, a book of interviews with pro-democracy activists (Africa World Press/Red Sea Press). His story, “On Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘One Art’ “ (Third Wednesday, Fall, 2010), has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
Email: Ron Singer
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