Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Late Summer



I sit outside in the evening
watching the sun slide down the
side of the sky like melting butter.

Overhead the leaves of the towering ash
are stenciled against the pale blue sky,
as unmoving as daubs of green paint.

A cluster of small clouds spreads out
like small children playing a last game
before dark. They gather together as

they float toward the horizon,
knitting themselves into a soft white blanket,
tucking themselves in for the night.

Two tired robins, their hatchlings gone,
wing across the open sky and bats
swoop like acrobats between trees.

A plane, so high it is silent,
shimmers pink in the sunset glow
blinking its lights like a beacon

showing the birds, the winging bats,
the cloud children, and me
how to navigate the dark.

13 comments:

Brian Miller said...

amid all the nature, even the lone plane seems to fit...to light the way, nice...love this. esp as i was sitting ont he front porch witht he cloud children to accompany me...

Hilary said...

The end of a perfect day.. and season.

Tabor said...

Such lovely lovely words. Thank you!

Out on the prairie said...

Very nicely written

molly said...

Magical! I love the sun, sliding like melted butter towards the horizon!

Anonymous said...

love how you weave your words into such a beautiful image!

Marion said...

Oh, I love the images that come to mind when I read this. "bats
swoop like acrobats between trees"...perfect! xx

Pauline said...

Brian M - it's so hard to go in at night when everything is so beautiful and peaceful out of doors...

Hilary - some days and evenings are just too lovely to forget.

Tabor - thank YOU. The simplest words seemed to be the right ones for this particular night.

Thanks, OOTP

Molly - it looked just so!

barbara - I had beautiful images with which to weave.

Marion - we always seem to see things in the same way :)

Frank Baron said...

You paint lovely, evocative images with your word palette.

Judith said...

That is so beautiful, Pauline!
Even for you, it's extraordinary ---
especially those cloud children playing their last game before dark, it is so evocative of what that stage of life was like as well as that time of day ---

Joanna Jenkins said...

Oh, this sounds just perfect-- like the end to the perfect day. Beautiful. Thank you.
jj

steven said...

pauline thankyou for sharing this lovely late summer moment. steven

Pauline said...

frank - isn't it fun to wield words like brushes and sentences like paint?

J - that particular evening was so lovely I didn't think I'd be able to capture it. The words in this piece are so plain but they tell plainly what I saw...

JJ - thanks :)

Steven - it's nice to be able to share such images with folks who see the same beauty