Just when you’d begun to feel you could rely on summer

Posted on by Live & Learn

beach-walk

Just when you’d begun to feel
You could rely on the summer,
That each morning would deliver
The same mourning dove singing
From his station on the phone pole,
The same smell of bacon frying
Somewhere in the neighborhood,
The same sun burning off
The coastal fog by noon,
When you could reward yourself
For a good morning’s work
With lunch at the same little seaside cafe
With its shaded deck and iced tea,
The day’s routine finally down
Like an old song with minor variations,
There comes that morning when the light
Tilts ever so slightly on its track,
A cool gust out of nowhere
Whirlwinds a litter of dead grass
Across the sidewalk, the swimsuits
Are piled on the sale table,
And the back of your hand,
Which you thought you knew,
Has begun to look like an old leaf.
Or the back of someone else’s hand.

—George Bilgere, “August,” The Good Kiss (Akron, 2002)

Notes: George Bilgere Bio.  Poem Source – The Journey of Words. Image: Precious Things

14 thoughts on “Just when you’d begun to feel you could rely on summer”

  4. “that same mourning dove singing..” Yep. Heard her every morning, and the cicadas in the early evening hours, and now? The rustle of drying leaves in the trees. Sigh….

  5. i have begun to feel the subtle changes as we march towards autumn. the light, the sound, the colors, the smells, all beginning to change –

  6. I haven’t heard of George Bilgere before. I looked him up on the internet and found this quote: “George Bilgere is a smooth-talking poet whose ease of language can lead us unawares into a complex terrain of the heart and spirit.” —Billy Collins. Thanks for posting this wonderful poem, David. And, yes, good-bye Summer…just when I thought we might become friends, you take off. 🙂

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