Island Schoolteacher

Monhegan Island with Manana beyond

This poem is inspired by a 2004 oil painting by Jamie Wyeth (born 1946). 
 http://www.wikiart.org/en/jamie-wyeth/monhegan-s-schoolteacher-2004

  ISLAND SCHOOLTEACHER
                        After Jamie Wyeth

            a wink on the distant western horizon
            Pemaquid Light greets the early morning
            skies still star rich with dawn’s approach
            beyond her window Manana a silent sentinel
            snow blanketed it is impossible to chance
            upon Norse runes etched in its coarse granite
            somewhere near its hidden bleating foghorn
            a rising tide washes around Casket Rock
            as it slowly vanishes into its watery crypt
            harbor emptied of all boats the island
            lobstermen gone to sea to pull their traps
            the Laura B rounding Nigh Duck passing
            Smutty Nose to the rime-encrusted wharf
            this is what she sees from her cottage
            secreted above dark village & quiet harbor
            she sits naked at her bare morning table
            fresh from a bath her hair towel wrapped
            it drapes across her back & thigh cloaking
            her modesty from the gaze of no one present
            she does not stare toward the winter sea
            the village houses rising like tombstones
             from the snowfields beyond her window
            her attention rests only on an open book
            a piece of toast clenched between her teeth  
            she quietly plans her day’s lessons dismissing
            another long night of tired lonesomeness
            & dreams of a day she boards the Laura B
            when it takes her quickly & far from this place