by Robert P. Barsanti The new year begins when the grass does. Sometime, after enough rain and enough sun creep through the fog banks, the grass returns to life and goes green. Crocuses and daffodils pop before the Easter eggs and the lawn, but they run a false flag operation. […]
Tag: Nantucket essay
The Currency of Memories
by Robert P. Barsanti On a bright Saturday in early May, one of the young men and I bought a dress shirt at Murray’s. Sometime in the winter, or at some other time when I wasn’t looking, the men’s section of the old store had been rearranged. It hadn’t been […]
Season of the Stick
by Robert P. Barsanti The ocean chewed the dark. Miles from the beach, the crunching and biting hung in the immediate present, distinct and clear. Overhead, the calendar roared and the power lines hummed. My boon companion and I were checking the fortifications as we do each night. We look […]
Visitors Remind Us
by Robert P. Barsanti On a night in August, a yacht named The Podium was tied up at the end of Straight Wharf, just beyond the swinging saloon door that protected “Yachtsmen and their guests” from the rest of us. The Podium is a 197 foot Lurssen super yacht tied […]
Keeper of the Constellations
by Robert P. Barsanti After I got the call, I spent an hour or so in my mother’s photo albums. During one of my mother’s chemotherapy summers, she organized a life-time of snapshots and Polaroids into a series of books. Film, in particular Polaroid film, was expensive. As a result, […]
The Caretaker
by Robert P. Barsanti I imagine that they had come into some money. Not an amount of money that would require lawyers, stock brokers, and accountants. But some money. Enough. So they rented a house in Tom Nevers with four bed rooms, three baths, and a distant water view. They […]
God’s Little Anvil
by Robert P. Barsanti The weathermen declared Nantucket “the place to be” for the hurricane season, and the kite surfers nod vigorously out in the channel. Starring in their own YouTube videos, they rip across the water in the Tropical Storm force winds. A blue sail dips down and pulls […]
Next Time
~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ In the summer, you see the most amazing things. I sat on the bench on South Wharf and watched a young man with lime green shorts and a white polo shirt eat a chocolate ice cream while he walked around and stared at his […]
Chains of Goodwill
~ by Robert P. Barsanti ~ At a South Shore beach, just up from Cisco, I looked up from my book to see two young men dragging a jet ski down to the water. Through careful and long practice, I have learned how to use sunglasses and eyed the progress […]