To Where Summer Went

Rush hour is over

Save for a few

Scuffling stragglers

On dusk’s avenue

Like husks of a summer

Savored and spent

Fall follows the footpath

To where summer went

Now the umbrellas

That lured us to lie

Like maidens and fellas

Beneath the big sky

Mutely dismantle

While nature’s big broom

Brushes to fence-lines

And hedgerows, its bloom

The big night is hollow

Its halls bleak and bare

Where stark branches wallow

And scratch the dark air

Hear how the wind lurks

In lonesome lament

Scavenging footpaths

To where summer went

Behind shuttered windows

The weather is warm

Wild the wind whimpers

With threats of a storm

Jealous it seems

Of our laughter intent

On following dreams

To where summer went

© Janet Martin