The Other Side
For decades people come here every fall
looking for the calm picturesque scenery.
Taking in the serene, changing colours
that come to us each and every year.
People cannot believe how quiet it is here.
The lawns are perfect and shops so welcoming.
An old town feel in modern times.
The visitors com here with blinders
on for what may be plainly hidden
right in front of their selective eyes.
Hidden off the colourful trails
are holes where bones
have been laying for years.
Local walkers always find them
without authorities ever locating
where they came from or who put them there.
Rumours have been floating for decades
of homeless wonderers stopping to tent
only to never get passed one night.
The transient walkers come here
as a walk through to the next big city
hoping for a night of peace and rest.
No one knew what was happening
until the old bones were found
off the trails in plain sight.
People that were known were not missing.
Not a person counted the travelling nomads.
Out of sight, out of mind.
Whispers amongst the community
were told to be silent about the decay.
People that visited would be driven away
from seeing the beautiful fall.
Taking the necessary monies away.
People knew where to direct the vacationing
away from the fresh and dried bones
found in the hidden other side
of this small tourist town
where all homeless wanderers were welcome.
August 1, 2019
© Andrew Scott – Just A Maritime Boy
Stand Or Fall
The shadowy shepherd wants to guide you in
to a path guided by an illusion of light
hoping you will walk without thought
and do the bidding of the compromised.
Feeding on the insecurity of your trails
the ability to push is present
to the ways of what is not believed.
Convictions of self can be forgotten
in order to join a place that may be wrong.
The feeling inside is just to belong.
Holding onto principles in this harsh time
can and will be the most difficult
if belief is fluctuating with the wind.
Set the feet firmly in the soil
and grasp onto what is in the conscience.
Embrace and do not waver
in what is known to be right.
Believing against the shadowy shepherd
lets us al stand still
where the opposition may fall.
August 7, 2019
© Andrew Scott – Just A Maritime Boy
Grainy Photo
All that is left of her is this grainy photo,
black and white, face barely visible.
Sad, after forty-three years, the only memory
or trace of her of her of the time spent on earth.
Miss Gracie just disappeared
from the lives of my parents
when she got on her old bike
and went to visit her Aunt and Uncle,
who just lived down the road.
This community was small,
mostly everyone knew every body.
It was nothing odd about to have kids
walking or biking up the road alone.
The elders always kept an eye out
with the exception of this one time.
Hours later all they found
was Miss Gracie’s bike laying
in a muddy, roadside ditch.
Every person in the village
was called and the search started,
farmer’s fields and woods scowered.
For weeks, someone was always searching.
Local radio kept pleading for tips.
There was a lot of people that saw nothing.
Not positive which one of my parents
gave up on finding Miss Gracie first.
For both of them it was decadees later.
Before then, every phone call
or door knock gave hope,
then hope would be taken away.
I was ten when Miss Gracie disappeared.
She was seven at he time.
Did not know how that moment
would define everything in our lives after.
I was never allowed to travel alone,
no neighbourhood kid was.
We were all home well before dark
and our parents knew where we were.
My kids have gone through the same.
Check in at home at all times.
Those rules never changed
under any circumstances.
My children may have resented me
however they were safe so I do not care.
Never once did I explain why.
felt like I did not have too.
There is an old, grainy photo
as a reminder for why.
July 10, 2019
© Andrew Scott – Just A Maritime Boy 2019
Andrew Scott is a native of Fredericton, NB. During his time as an active poet, Andrew Scott has taken the time to speak in front of a classrooms, judge poetry competitions as well as be published worldwide in such publications as The Art of Being Human, Battered Shadows and The Broken Ones. His books, Snake With A Flower, The Phoenix Has Risen, The Path, The Storm Is Coming and Through My Eyes are available now. Searching is his fifth poetry collection.
To contact Andrew, email …andrewscott.scott@gmail.com
http://twitter.com/JustMaritimeBoy
http://andrewmscott.com
http://www.facebook.com/andymscott
Academy of the Heart And Mind 
Wonderfully written descriptive poems, Andrew. Nicely done 🙂
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