Betula alleghaniensis, Yellow Birch On the island they call it the mainland. They call it America. They call it the shore. They call it many things. They say you go across the water and you go back to America. Some can’t leave sight of the water. It makes them nervous. The water draws some back from as far away as New Mexico.

The summer comes and traffic builds up along the coast. People come in their cars to a place less densely populated, where they can breathe again, and see the water. There is a certain amount of human pysche that isn’t as resilient as we all would like it to be. ~~

They’ll tell you some history or about their family or how things here are all stacked atop another thing. They say about why there are rock walls in the woods all over New England because it was land that couldn’t be controlled, so they let the trees grow back, and the walls fall over.

They call it the mainland, or America—from here you can see it— From Mullen’s Head you can see Isle Au Haut, and duck camp. You can see out past shoals and Islesboro to Mt Desert Island. ~~

From a rocky top flows a stream on this island in spring Past a boulder and a yellow birch Betula alleghaniensis There it was they left a pile of bones And a pile of stones A standing pile shored up by rocks With rocks stacked atop

And lower on the shore I see red eye of a loon, Back of a black white checkermark pattern, divedown Swim around In this body of water that flows between lands.