Athens, Georgia
May 28, 2014
An earlier version of this poem was posted in May 2011.
When a Southern August lays on hands with lush embrace
of steamy weeks
in sticky haze
then come the ghosts of Carboniferous swamps
to cast their ancient spells,
I hear their call:
 |
| "Jurassic Landscape" by Karen Carr. © Karen Carr/Australian Museum |
Gondwana’s
store
return
onto
Pangean
shores
release
your old
reptilian
core
to
bask the vast
unending
light
through
countless days
of
mindless sigh
and
dwell here
past
eternity –
it’s
long before the Fall.
Through waning days I run the break of dark
by tidy lawns refreshed
with dew.
Their scent and sparkle stir anew
as memories reconstitute old seasons born so long ago
in stain and sweat
and school boy pride
forged from summer football trials in heat and pads
on high school fields
that to young minds must surely yield triumphant
Friday nights to come
if only
August days would end
at last in break of fall.
Those Southern rites of passage echo yet
in aching muscles
one time strong.
They burn inside my aging body decades on
as by degrees the morning dark
seeps into day
and evening light just melts away
in endless August once again when weeks pile up
and I await
the break of heat that snaps the spell
as age and darkness creep, encroach
and claim their share of fading light
for longer nights of fall.
Yet far too soon I’ll take those final steps
through shadowlands
to peaceful shores
bedeviled by ideals undone
but singing Eden’s call:
Evolve, create
new
worlds today
and
make of earth
a
paradise
beyond
the snare
of
ancient spell
that
weaves the hell
of
human strife
into
the dreams of Fall.
Creature of primeval slough with singing blood
and scheming mind
in fear and fight, in pride of life
I wait
and cling to hope inside –
may grace embrace the fall.
 |
| Earth in late Carboniferous Period (from Wikipedia, by Dr. Ron Blakely) |
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