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
