Welcome July

Rather than panic that sweet July will fly by too fast

Time is teaching me to soak in every sacred moment cast

Like a lure at the end of a fisherman's rod

To get hooked, lined and sinker-ed by the artwork of God

Welcome, sweet, sweltering July

You spread your grin across the sky

While we, beneath its boundless blue

Drink in the ink of dust and dew

And barely want to sleep because

Of how soon you turn into Was

Thus, we cannot afford to miss

One iota of summer-bliss

One meadow full of Queen Ann’s lace

One very fine excuse to chase

Time down lanes fringed with filigree

Of chamomile and chicory

Welcome, jubilee of July

Happiness is a butterfly

A gaudy stalk of holly-hock

An afternoon without a clock

A symphony of cold, iced-tea

Or teal sea-song, flung fancy free

‘cross smiles and miles of glossy sand

Where at last the sea meets the land

That sheds its green for sheen of gold

That tugs at something none can hold

But rushes, gushes, blushes through

An orange-lily lavished flue

Welcome, patina of July

Of mist-kissed morn soon sizzled dry

Of haunts we seek with roofs, leaf spun

To hide from the big yellow sun

Of pools and ponds resounding splash

Of purple popsicle mustache

Of moms and dads, half-holidayed

While childhood memories are made

Of baskets bearing garden gifts

While moments merge and summer drifts

Through glasses filled with a parade

Of berry-garnished lemonade

Welcome, wander-land of July

Where wild-grass strums a lullaby

While we permit ourselves to sit

And daydream for a longer bit

Because we know how moments flow

From holding on to letting go

How, afternoon to afternoon

Didst curb the blurb of May to June

Of lilac-froth and blossom snow

Into a surging undertow

That melds without noisy fanfare

Into an ocean of thin air

Welcome, twinkle we call July

Of corn-fields reaching for the sky

Of zinnia-fireworks that spill

A petal-rainbow’s timeless thrill

Of sprinklers tossing diamonds wild

Around the dazzle-smitten child

Of early dawn and tardy dusk

And senses steeped in daisy-musk

Where Time gleams like a painting hung

Entitled When the World Was Young

Welcome, welcome, darling July

Where poets purge and wheat fields sigh 

Where foliage flaunts both hip-hooray

And bug and blight induced dismay

Where finches flit-flirt-squabble-tweet

Where briefly, earth and heaven meet

Where we aboard a barge of days

Are drifting t'ward a violet haze

That separates present and past

Where we make history far too fast

While we are learning how to fall

Hook, line and sinker through it all 

© Janet Martin