August Aria

through spicy-sweet sweltering afternoon 

to blue brooding breezy cool-down dusk 

to mist-kissed morning, 

this poem percolated...

 

 

 

Daylight ebbs from earth-moored skylines like an ocean at low tide
Colour drains from yonder welkin and the rolling countryside
Dusk, a navy flannel blanket fringed with pink till edges fade
Gathers up the world in whispers poured through shushing poplar-shade
While with staid staccato gusto, tireless crickets serenade

Summer trembles as if sensing someone soon to take her place
Dawn waits to endear with echoes; and to kiss earth’s upturned face
Shiver, quiver, swelter, sweaters; winter, spring, summer then fall
Like a river-song that ripples in a wordless madrigal
Shadows stretching taller, taller till blue twilight snuffs them all

Nature weaves Her rending ribbon through the leaves, still lush and green
But with here and there a glimmer of gold rebel tucked between
While we wield brave fronts and savour Beauty; let it steal our breath
While wild lilies lavish landscapes with an inkling of a wreath
While we try to find our footing on frail flower-tides beneath

Then dawdle if you dare, cavort and swaddle Must with wanderlust
Because none in the end can thwart the oracle of dust to dust
Ah, settle on a sweep of grass; set sail across noon’s wind-tossed sheaves
Before its sparkle ebbs from earth-moored skylines to yon starry eaves
Before dusk drapes its flannel over shoulders stooped with fallen leaves


© Janet Martin