Goodnight, Summer

The Summer of 2017 was the hottest on record in the Northern Hemisphere. Some attribute this to Global Warming, while others consider it a simple aberration. Whatever your opinion, this brutal summer season is one that will be recalled and debated about for decades. Whether or not the increase in temperatures becomes the "new normal" is yet to be seen. Now that autumn is nudging this summer into memory, I thought the Summer of 2017 deserves to be sent out with a poem.

 

 

You leapt from your slumber eagerly

Full of heat and mischief

Grazed the petals with your searing fingers

Turned the rain to lightning

The air to smoke

Undulating curtains of heat rising

From the melting blacktop

The earth begging with thirst

 

Oh, you devil you!

 

And you hung on, hung on

Tenacious

Like a spoiled, sadistic child

In need of endless attention

 

Yet, in your benevolence

You brought us

Big bright stars against the black night

Meteor showers

Scarlet suns

Orange moons

Magenta sunsets

Jasmine scented air

Roses and gardenias

Giant moths dancing around porch lights

Cricket song from sunset to sunrise

Birdsong all day long

Birdsong late into the sultry night

 

Spent, brittle maple leaves carpet lawns and pavement

The wind is cool and damp

Fragrant with pine and rosemary

And someone spilled a bag of cotton balls

Into the bluest of skies

 

Goodnight, Summer

Be gentle next year