POETRY

A Day of Flowers’ Sorrow

Summer Solstice poem

Photo by Andre Taissin on Unsplash

I was told today that it was summer sol’
A blessed day, a day for ritual
Fetch the morning rays, sun be blessed
A day to love the lovers
And keep the demons bay.

Summer Sol’, midsummers eve
Feast and plough and pluck and prune
Dance with the beasts the banjo screams
Fire built tall feet tread coal
Another day, longer still.

I need sleep, summer sol’
Mushroom teas
Rosemary thralls
Clover and bark,
Mosses grow deep.

Summers sol’ in the North
The waters churn cold
Sanded beaches, vipers of wind
My feet slip ‘long corals red
The South, it is not our time.

As creeping cold grow
And we long for furs on fire
Crawling into mudded homes
The flowers, they die
Return to earth with sorrow.