Peter Blair: Estivation

June's first crickets
tick the hours,
clicking a song
into their only summer 
as white clouds sail over
Evergreen Cemetery.
 
            *
Behind the firehouse,
a lavender blaze
of wild wisteria
spreads blooming
flames over a clearing:
a man's lean-to, blanket,
and campfire ash.
 
            *
 
Freshly washed shirts dry
all day on the line
as clouds sail in blue.
 
Taking them down in sun
and wind, I put my face to them
and smell the sky.
 
            *
 
Against blue dusk
a bat dives, veers
 
over the bank, dips,
swoops up
 
above the library,
& pivots around
 
the corner
of the moon.
 
            *
 
July window:
olive pine needles
high jade oak leaves
verdant dogwood foliage
azaleas' lime frondescence
emerald recycling barrel
green grass.

Peter Blair’s collections of poetry include Farang (Autumn House, 2010). He lives in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Copyright 2021 Peter Blair