Linda Pastan ~ Beech Avenue: The Fourth of July

[terabithiabeth.livejournal.com]

Beech Avenue: The Fourth of July

How heavy the summer seems, how thick-waisted
and full of heat. The elm is swollen with leaves,
and the lowing clouds, still filled with rain,
hang pendulous as unmilked udders.
The air tastes faintly of cordite where
a Roman candle flickers and is snuffed out.
One by one the minutes gather and spill
over the rim of my cupped hands, and I
watch as though already remembering
these friends scattered like spit watermelon seeds
over the garden; Rachel holding
her first amazing sparkler; the boys
running through grass away from us, from
the whole green day which nonetheless will keep
hard as a pebble around which moss will grow
and lichen. Where shall I be on that July
when the pebble cracks like a geode,
and there perfectly preserved in layers
of crystal my grown sons find these very
trees, short-circuited with fireflies,
this restless lightning, locked in cloud but
hammering out now, sparks flying, as rain
hesitant all day finally starts to fall?

~ Linda Pastan, A Perfect Circle of Sun (1971)

Comments

[upatmidnight.livejournal.com]

very nice...good share
a theme poem for the current holiday about us...
*soft smile*