Strangers
Belle Burden, 2025
A pandemic lockdown, a Martha's Vineyard house, and a marriage the narrator thought she knew. An intimate memoir about intimacy, money, and starting over.
Belle Burden
Osprey populations rebounded after DDT was banned in 1972; the birds are again a common sight over Martha's Vineyard.
Feels like memory, family and grief.
The nest is empty, the world is closing, and the birds are still coming.
When we arrived on the Vineyard in March of 2020, the nest was empty. The birds were still warming themselves in the southern hemisphere, perhaps beginning their pilgrimage back to the island, making their way over the Caribbean Sea and Florida, continuing north, hugging the coastline, as a virus, first found in China, made its own explosive journey through the United States. My husband and I walked around the pole in our wool hats and parkas, our boots sinking in the marsh. The nest was intact, unchanged from the previous fall. Even in the bitter air, even with sharp sticks poking out of every side, it looked strong and stable. Welcoming. We smiled at each other and talked about the couple’s return. Would we be here to see it? Books by Belle Burden
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