A Farewell to Summer

A memory of Ocean Isle Beach, N.C., August 3, 2002
Athens, Georgia

January 13, 2011

One on each side, my brothers

hoist the folding beach chair

and carry with care

this now frail woman

        across the access

to the edge of the sea

to soak her toes in a tidal caress

to feel the roar and the silence

        to take that one last look

at the wide spaces she wandered

with childhood dreams

her own, her children’s

        her children’s children’s

in those magical margins

where she honed her vocation

spinning lifelines of happiness

to secure young souls

        within her spell

of sunny summer wonder.

Beach grasses bend

in the prevailing wind

as they anchor loose sands

to foundations of impermanence

that shift imperceptibly

        through human lives

and even endless summers

must yield their time

to make way for new beginnings.

The wind blows which way it will

we do not know where

or why, and so let go only

        because we must

and claim that bitter prize - 

our due share of reluctant wisdom.

  

Her short hair tangles today

in a warm ocean breeze

that mixes sand and salt

and the sweet smell of sunblock.

        She sheds no tears

but sets her countenance

to the infinite horizon

with weary resolve

to honor what was, what

        must be again

and to go her way into autumn

with the grace of summer

clutching lightly to the backs

of tiny boys grown tall

in the sunshine of her life.