August's To-do List

 Ah-h-August!

...to oblige August’s smallest matters of must

Like soaking in saunas of sunbeam and dust

Like lying beneath boundless heath of blue skies

Listening to the flutter of leaf-butterflies

Or drinking the ink of pink clover or rose

Or tracing the lace of Queen Ann’s scattered clothes

To waste not a flicker of quickening reach

To taste wonder dripping like juice from a peach

To not be too hurried to take a tea-break

Complete with a slice of  Southern Lemon Cake 

To stand face to face with a handsome sunflow'r

And count only kisses, not the day or hour

To watch from grass-bleachers dusk’s nightly showdown

To wade through wildflowers, waist-deep and wind-blown

To walk in slow-motion floors stubbly with gold

Aware of an ocean no shoreline can hold

To ponder while sitting too long on creek-banks

Ten-thousand sound reasons for giving God thanks

(For of the four seasons we treasure and toast

I think in August I love summer most)

To touch time for what it is; His grace unbound

To take off our shoes as we tread holy ground

To gather the goodness of garden and field

Heedful of the harvest that Last Breath will yield 

© Janet Martin