‘Enough to stay drunk’

Pierce Cemetery, in Wolcott, Vt.

“The Pikes have come a long way down
since the old man walked to Craftsbury
every day all his life to saw boards.
There’s only Bill and Arnie left as far as I know
and both of them make only enough to stay drunk.’’

— From “The Chain Saw Dance,’’ by David Budbill (1940-2016), a poet and playwright who came to be seen as a bard of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

He lived in a small cabin in Wolcott for more than 40 years, where he created the fictional town of Judevine, named after a local mountain, and populated it with local folk, many highly problematic.

In Craftsbury