Goodnight Again, Summer

I originally wrote this poem in the summer of 2017 after a then-record setting heat wave. It turns out the summer of 2022 broke all global heat records, especially in Europe and Great Britain where the population suffered tremendously. Wildfires scorched a great swath of our Northern Hemisphere, destroying lives and property. Perhaps this will be the norm from now on, although I pray 2022's vicious summer season was simply an exception.

 

Yet, Summer, when it's behaving normally, brings beauty and rebirth.

 

So, I have decided to revise and re-post my poem about 2017's temperamental summer season, because it applies to our collective experience of 2022's season as well.

 

 GOODNIGHT AGAIN, SUMMER

 

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 relief from 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

 

Summer, you are a big ham on Earth's stage

Padding your lines with one adlib after another

Even during your curtain call

That you selfishly extended into two curtain calls

Before your final bow

 

Now that you have reluctantly exited

Spent, brittle maple leaves carpet lawns and pavement

The wind is cool and damp

Fragrant with pine and rosemary

Glowing diamond-edged clouds slate-tinged with rain and snow

Promise restoration while you slumber.

 

 Goodnight again, Summer

Be gentle next year