the thousandth island by Bob MacKenzie

January 6, 2022
Poem name: the thousandth island Poet name: Bob MacKenzie Poem begins: far enough from the shore the house with the blue roof sits back from the lake’s edge in sphinx-like dignity in front two docks extend paws of the resting beast there’s death on this island the house long abandoned to tourists on cruise ships the house with the blue roof perhaps a murder mystery haunted by memories somewhere there’s a rich man gone back home to The States without his missing wife the house with the blue roof left vacant for decades the mystery unsolved though it is a rumour murder is never proved sitting on the border complicates police work between jurisdictions where the shadows remain somewhere there’s a woman weeping in the shadows waiting for her husband not knowing she has died island cruise ships pass by the house with the blue roof End of Poem. Credits: Copyright © Bob MacKenzie Bob MacKenzie grew up in a photo studio in mid-century rural Alberta with artist parents. His father was a professional photographer and musician and his mother a photo technician, colourist, and painter. By the age of five, he had his own camera and ever since has been shooting photographs and writing poems and stories. Raised in this environment, at an early age he developed a natural affinity for photography and for the intricacies of language. Bob’s poetry has appeared in more than 400 journals across North America and as far away as Australia, Greece, India, and Italy. His poems have been translated into Persian (Farsi), Greek, and Arabic. Bob has published eighteen volumes of poetry and prose-fiction and his work’s appeared in numerous anthologies. He’s received numerous local and international awards for his writing as well as an Ontario Arts Council grant for literature, a Canada Council Grant for performance, and a Fellowship to attend the Summer Literary Seminars in Tbilisi, Georgia. With the ensemble Poem de Terre, for eighteen years Bob’s poetry has been spoken and sung live with original music and the group has released six albums.