August

Slide onto morning
Savor chicory coffee
            under the honey locust
Contemplate line as trees
            separate from sky
Spy on stars
            who have been out dancing all night
            in the cosmos with moon
            as they return
            to the stalks of loosestrife
            exhausted
Help sky decide on
            this day’s blue: navy, cobalt, turquoise
            lapis, ahhh yes, cornflower
Taste last night’s dreams in dew
Follow sun sluicing upwards
Witness bees nuzzle
             the golden teats of hollyhocks
Tell you cloud stories
Gauge the weight of humidity
            height of corn
Hear the lick-slap
            of the changing tide
Glimpse the flickered flight of phoebes
Feel the shiver
            that lifts fern fronds
            then releases them
Hear crickets transmit secret messages
Define the red in sumac – firerubyscarlet
Fold with the translucent
            stained glass wings of monarch
            slide into the purple trumpet of hosta
            undulate to ancient rhythms