Last Poems / Poems Last : Main Characters

Image of Linda
Linda: An easy-going divorcee living on Cape Cod. Mild and good-natured, her sense of humor is infectious, though her love of irony is sometimes misunderstood. She makes her living as hairdresser and sometimes as an artist. Raised in a family of morticians, she learned to create “lifelike” hair by working on dead people. For the last ten years she has been increasingly interested in Buddhism. “It helps me better understand the boundaries between death and life,” she commented.
Image of Ron
Ron : A retired ship-builder living in a run-down house at the water’s edge near Brewster, Cape Cod. Proud of his Irish-Aussi heritage and once married to a Korean-American real estate agent, for many years he battled with alcoholism. Now he is off the bottle, but an obsessive chain smoker. Anti-intellectual, he despises all that is “new age” and phony. Not particularly erudite, he is at least entertaining and his no-nonsense approach to life is grounding in many ways. You can count on Ron for a quick retort whenever you get too theoretical.
Image of Lis
Lis: A small business owner in Provincetown, Massachusetts. Often confused and suspicious of ideologies, she nonetheless has great warmth beneath her crusty exterior. Raised by French father and Chinese mother, she combines a sense of bon mot with pragmatics. Nominally married to a wealthy Jewish American, she now regard marriage as a sort of business arrangement that may (or may not) include love. At one time she dreamed of becoming a classical musician, now she works in the family business of selling sundry souvenirs (genuine antique and otherwise) to tourists. She adeptly mixes English and French and Chinese and is also trying to learn Spanish. In her free time she enjoying playing the violin and experimenting with poetry.
Image of Lex
Lex: A defrocked minister who spends his time counseling on a suicide hotline. However, when he is not working he enjoys gardening and “seeing life spring up in the most impossible places.” A bit reclusive at times, he still enjoys a good bit of repartee and once a week he visits a bar owned by Lis’s family to “roost” with a familiar bun of friends. He is secretly attracted to Lis, but lacks the energy or conviction to do anything about it. Because every relationship he has been in before has failed, he has become an expert at letting go and realizes all things come to an end. Sometimes Lex seems gruff, but actually he is also deep, compassionate, and incisive. And at times his humor wells up from the most surprising places.