Ere Summer Like a Flower Fades...

Farewell, sweet July!

Ere winter drapes sugary shawls over the stooped shoulders of earth

And Jack Frost leaves his feather-scrawls on parchment void of flower-mirth

Where Queen Ann’s Lace and chicory and columbine and goldenrod

Have tendered their rainbow melee to rest in cold, dark chests of sod

Ere fence-line finery is doffed and orange lily-lanterns snuffed

By winds once green and whisper-soft as silk that pops the milkweed tuft

Ere songbirds launch a southward flight and woodlands shed their shushing tress

And all the land is staunch and white; shrouded in sterling quietness

Ere lap and slap of lake-song stills and surging splurge of surf is spent

And steely surface seals the rills; ere petal from pinion is rent

To moulder in the dust of days beneath a soldered garden path

Ere summer slips into the haze of wind-strummed wild-grass aftermath

Ere summer like a flower fades and Beauty dons more somber hues

Ere farmer wields the harvest-blades and winter-weather fills the news

Let’s love this season’s wonder-storm without wishing for something more

Ere What We Hold loses its form like waves as they are washed ashore

© Janet Martin