Summer-set

A short while ago it gleamed with elation

A highway of hope to the edge of the sky

Somewhere, somehow on the lilt of a season

It falls from hello to the brink of good-by

It folds and unfolds in the dusk and the dawning

And somewhere between the bare fallow and sheaves

We plant, we harvest, and we lie on the awning

Of clover and daisy and sun-dappled leaves

The absolute blue of July’s noon pavilion

The tundra of green in June, tender-sweet

The blush of the rose in Augusts’ sultry garden

The deepening amber of barley and wheat

The laughter of children in barefooted banter

The song of the sea as it rushes to shore

These shape the memory caught in a moment

Of pure summer sunshine and nothing more

…but now, as we finger her frayed, tarnished presence

And beg her to tarry a longer while yet

We feel her reply in the day’s waning essence

This is the hour of sweet summer-set

© Janet Martin