Malden is a chapbook of twenty-seven poems. All of the poems except two are set in Malden, Massachusetts. Malden is just two cities north of Boston.
....... My Malden was full of men who had jobs that boys dreamed of one day doing: cops, firemen, bus drivers, carpenters, and plumbers. And the women were housewives though they may have been or one day might be nurses, secretaries, and waitresses. And kids were everywhere: on the streets, at the parks, and in backyards. I was one of those kids.
....... Fellow Maldonians will recognize some places and maybe some names in the poems, but most readers of the poems will find a familiar world of playgrounds, dances, garage bands, hockey rinks, fireworks, churches, schools, moms, dads, brothers, sisters, girlfriends, and wives.
....... I have tried to follow Wendell Berry's advice to "Be joyful though you have considered the facts. "
David R. Surette