Summer's Embers...

“Have you ever given orders to the morning,
    or shown the dawn its place, 
 that it might take the earth by the edges
    and shake the wicked out of it? 
 The earth takes shape like clay under a seal;
    its features stand out like those of a garment.
Job 38:12-14 

Above us banks of clouds

Glow like a dying fire

Below the misty morn enshrouds

The stage of cricket-choir

A symphony of sound

From summer’s embers swell

Its rush of flower-hours bound

Like sheaves upon the fell

 

A tempest, still at bay

Rouses the heart to sense

Beyond the cricket’s rippling lay

The fireside’s recompense

Where now the gourd yet beams

Like lanterns from yon slope

Where now the faithful farmer gleans

The aftermath of hope

And trees toss glossy manes

And clap their leafy limbs

Before the stilling autumn rains

Strip woodlot of its hymns

And leaves life’s music strewn

Like little mementos

Of once upon an afternoon

And summer’s beaming rose

© Janet Martin