Summertime
Poetry
Here in the US of A
Summer starts much earlier than the Fourth of July
Impromptu guests throw caution to the wind
strut through the Valley
unscripted,
unscheduled,
unannounced,
but, usually invited.
Nature, infused with long days,
with ample food and occasional sumptuous rain,
rises early, and by midday,
slows down to pray to the Sun in the zenith.
He, the Sun, too glistens lazily,
hazily sometimes,
bestowing abundance
of daytime starlight, and
a falsehood of invincibility.
Noise-prompted deer,
now with a considered effort,
lift their polite heads carefully,
twenty or so yards South-West to our driveway
In that spot, above an already golden turning, tall grass
across the prism of a mirage
their eyes meet ours
in a slow
soul-to-soul
measured
acknowledgment
and then, they meet eyes
of our enthused pup
yet even so
they are slow, earth-tethered
and too weighted
down with the currency of seasonal surplus
and sunshine
Complacent with an illusion
of abundance
they do not react
as they would
were it another season.
A pack rat with a dark blueish fur claims shelter in our open garage
Our dog finds it
Meanwhile, a snake patiently assesses the opportunity
from our driveway
An approach of my foot coils it up,
still lazily
without even a rattle,
because it’s summer, so, why bother?
Leave me alone — It postures
But, you’re in my driveway — I stare it down.
We argue
but only a little,
then,
unresolved,
we slither
our separate ways, carefully.
Just then, my neighbor calls, this time to alert —
A young black bear is frolicking in the meadow,
Looks to us, he heading up your driveway – He says.
Then slowly adds – Be careful.
With a backdrop of still snowcapped mountain,
he, the young bear, for some reason too,
feels, and rightfully so, invited
(Just please, leave the place as you found it).
Cicadas’, sparrows’ and coyotes’ songs of
victories, joys, gossip and ploys
carry through the air’s
wavelengths in nature’s frequency
now at least twice a day,
and sometimes, in the wee hours,
piercing through the thin veil of our dog’s and my dreams.
From time-to-time,
wildflower – scented notes and movements
accentuated with undertones
of a cooler wind,
succumb to an air–parsing maestro
who rhythmically ushers cloaks of rain
over the saw-toothed mountains’ tridents,
as he sends resonating vibrations against
our bedroom windows,
incorporating less subtle elements,
and more than a pinch of fiery bravado
interspersed with bolts of lightning
Lovely, Please keep it down!
And please, for goodness sake, don’t start any fires.
And then, a day or so later, when earth is dry again,
the breeze takes dirt road’s dust by the arm,
and leads it up our driveway
The two impress with finest plies,
triple and quadruple pirouettes
Their swan-winged extended elegance
disappearing in just one glance, and
appearing again in another.
And, so plays out our summertime.
