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Cherokee Red

Cape Ann Pilgrimage

By: - Sep 26, 2018

Cherokee Red

Road warriors
Out together
Dancing cheek to Jeep
My new old car
Red right returning
Buoy oh boy
Heated seats
Yet to be tested
Bells and whistles
Taken Siriusly
Jazz all day
Driving along
Singing a song
Annual Pilgrimage
Trail of ancestors
Over the bridge
Riverdale to Annisquam
Then Lane’s Cove
Where cousins summered
Breakwater being rebuilt
Youthful Red Gates
That rocky shore
Swam at high tide
Folly Cove chowder
Bench by the sea
Haven of smugglers
Pigeon Cove
Past decrepit tool factory
Such thundering noise
Now shuttered and silent
Easing into Rockport
Past long dormant quarries
Flynn ancestors cut stone
Built granite breakwater
Now a tourist trap
Astrid had ice cream
Bear Skin Neck
Looking at quiet harbor
Bobbing lobster boats
Along Nugent Stretch
Where Patrick and Mary
Raised their brood
Working Beaver Dam Farm
He gone at 50 in 1900
She left with thirteen
Three died that terrible year
Just before the war
Walk on Good Harbor Beach
Once Nugent property
Stolen by Gloucester
As was George’s pig farm
Collusion of judge and lawyers
Wiped proud family
From Cape Ann history
Lost without a trace
Just name of the place
Back road along Bass Rocks
Lined with mansions
Sign of the times
Harbor wharves scoffed
New Balance developer
Feet in our face
Walking Niles Beach
On to Eastern Point
Homes of old money
Even T. S. Eliot’s
Now a foundation
Rocky Neck for dinner
Anniversary celebration
Cruising Main Street
For Virgilio’s bread
Treat for breakfast
Wingaersheak Beach
Motel on other side
From where I grew up
Teen years in Norwood Heights
Where Pip fed us
A festive meal
Braciola and casada
Such a rare treat
Lovely family dinner
Our Sicilian heritage
Round and about
Epic of Maximus
Hope nothing got left out