Ah, Summer's World

Ah, summer-world, a bud uncurled

In nature’s unfurled sigh

As fallow-seas rush out with ease

To tease the pleasing sky

Ah, dust-sweet joys and barefoot boys

And noise of cricket-throng

They brush the heart with sanguine art

And tilt its cup in song

Ah, green to gold to rust unfolds

The dust that holds the pen

That writes upon the azure yon

Then rolls it up again

Ah, ebbing flow of hold-let-go

Ah, favored stepping-stone

Embellished with dew-stars, a frith

That bleeds with winter’s bone

Ah, beaming bloom and teeming room

We dream at noon because

Too soon this splay of gold turns gray

In summer’s world that was

© Janet Martin