Soon after this Thetford

chartered itself in 1761,

settlers from southern

New England arrived —

began transforming forest-

lands into community.

Villagers fast became part

of the old Haunted Vermont.

The first New England nun

visited once — trying to hand out

free copies of A Buddhist

Bible for Christ and Country.

The expressman Mister Wells

often stuttered in his rounds —

but continued to excel — and

exceed the U. S. Postal service.

Mary Lucy Child left to study —

at Wellesley — then returned home

to continue her own research.

The Academy built itself up and up.

Grace Paley’s halo of white hair

remained yet a fuzzy century away –

far off on Thetford’s poetic horizons.

Rivers overran — and fields flooded.

Children learned to climb and fall.

Sap ran and time froze inside winter.

Pond ice sometimes stayed till May.

Trees and flowers bloomed in June.

Still and all, nothing – and no one —

could hope to hide out forever —

in those cold Green Mountains.

. . . . .

Poet: Susan Powers Bourne

Source: Thetford Historical Society

Process: Excerpt and remix