Page 31 - Contrast1965Spring

SUMMERS REMEMBERED

Summers remembered
Silently fading,

Into the darkening paths of the past,
I see days of bright noontime

And dark shifting shadows.
I will slowly forget them at l a st ,
But I remember --

Days when
The white on the trees was dust
Mixed with scattered flecks of sun
Caught in leaf wax
Blown clean by the summer's wind.

Or fuzzy days of milkweed and dandelion,
Thistles and daisies,

Growing with Queen Anne's lace
Beside the damp meadow.

Or fuzzy nights of moths come in clouds,
Chalky and ash-white,

With fine feathers for feelers
When seen by the lamp light.

And days of rain and cloud shadows,
Meadows and woodlands

Washed by the rain
And dried by the wind.

Or the sun caught in puddles --
Long yellow ribbons in the ruts of the road --

Or brown mud marked by the footprints of bare feet
and sneakers.

Summers of childhood paths of the past,
Slowly receeding Nancy Ann Mengel

Into the darkening

I will remember.

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