August Departing

by Keri Horon

Moonless night
Midnight
Misty-eyed mums bow their heads in heaviness
And sorrow
As August prepares its exit

Stillness fills the chilling air
Sap sticks to melancholy bark
While lilies wilt woefully
There’s sadness in
Summer ending

One nightingale sings in the sourgum
One hummingbird slumbers longer
Mourning doves squat sullenly
In heavy silence
Nature knows change is near

Black skies bearing invisible stars
Blanket earth and beckon evolution
At daybreak, oat turns into straw stalk by stalk
Parched petals separate from stem in slow motion
The bonds of summer gradually break

Leaves leave their branch
In shriveled sadness
Willows weep with woeful arms
That bid the green grass goodbye
As summer withdraws

©KeriMeHome

The sun – innocently fickle –
Moves ever farther south
Dipping its rays into
Colder territories
Where its radiance is required

Temperate eves escorting midday warmth
Give way to September equinox
Soon Frost will emerge in the gloaming
Tingeing twigs with vacant whiteness
Nothing gold can stay

©KeriMeHome

Fair weather fades with falling foliage
August, carrying 12 weeks’ weight, slowly absconds
Unwavering in his steady pace
– Perhaps halfheartedly –
Knowing Earth’s rotations dictate his departure

The going is grim
For all who treasure the mellow warmth
That summer’s light bestowed
All the wishing won’t delay what’s
Inevitable

Changing seasons, though not sudden,
Sets off sorrow
Sorrow for its egress, sadness for its close
It goes
Knowing it must

We witnesses to nature’s recasting
Plead for permanence
A perpetual summer season
Safe in it predictability
Easy in its familiarity

Yearning for the reassuring
Aquas, ambers, and azules of summer
Wanting the light to remain
Rather than shimmering and
Fading away…

As the cornstalk gives way to golden husk
And the sunny dandelion turns to silvery pappus
Endings, though imminent, signal conversion

Trees must eventually let go
Of hard-earned leaves
Stolen by September’s grasp

©KeriMeHome

Heather, sage, ‘n aster
Each yearn for autumn’s coolness
Their growth derived from dimming sun

The amaryllis belladonna
Stands strong as fall ferries in
And bears frost-tinged tips

Corals, clarets, & crimsons
Color a new day
With September’s own kind of warmth and charm

©KeriMeHome

Every exit escorts a new encounter
Emergence can’t help but happen
One takes leave while one embarks

Nature’s synchronic refashioning
Seamless in its slow passage as
Summer succumbs

A tenacious burgundy berry clinging to the bush
Softens slightly in the murky, milky twilight
Savoring…capitulating gracefully

Like the lily, with perennial lifeblood,
We hold within us, deep down inside, the hope
For summer’s rapid return

Storing gratitude and gradually adjusting
To the minuscule and major alterations
That certain bittersweet change brings.

©KeriMeHome