New England Diary

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'Shyly among their valuables'

"Most days

the barn stands

across the street

from the washette,

high empty

windows staring into space

of another century.

Today, the barn's

on fire. People

roused from

the sleeping tenement

stand shyly among

their valuables:''

-- From "Fire in Enfield,'' by Wesley McNair, poet laureate of Maine