“If you don’t eat at Breeze,”
the hotel’s concierge warned us,
“you could spend
your New Year’s Eve
with ruffians!”
What are ruffians exactly
in Nantucket?
Are they the fishermen
with long, bushy beards
who wear flannel shirts & eat at Stubby’s,
or are they the workmen
that come from all the corners of the earth,
dreaming of whales & boats?
Are they the grizzly grandmas
who shop solo at Stop & Shop,
driving their weathered Volvos,
or the waitresses from Ireland,
Thailand & Jamaica,
they miss their homeland
as they pour more drinks?
Are they the shopgirls
with frizzy hair,
sharp eyes & fast hands,
speaking in indecipherable accents?
Or are they other poor visitors,
pretending to be rich
for four nights,
at the end of the year,
like artists, musicians or poets,
who play & perform
for their supper
as the tipsy audience cheers them on?