The dogs are restless.

And so the evening starts.

The croaking herons raised my eye,

And I thought, as I always do,

How like pterodactyls they are

The cocktail is kicking in.

A rarity for me, it seemed

A luxury to balance the

Fall I took teasing my way

Down hill, carefully but not,

It seems, carefully enough.

A poem, an article and a book

No nihilism today.

Yes, it’s hotter than hell,

But it’s bloody summer

In Tennessee

I am watching a wasp

Build a paper nest

With deliberate precision

I can only envy.

I have heard the mermaids

Singing each to each—

This is not their song.

We sat beneath the trees, sheltered

From the midday sun by a canopy of

Oak and walnut leaves that played

A toneless music when cued to motion

By the wind

My feet and legs are dirty still despite the shower,

Run with streaks of black-brown where the water

From the mulch cascaded from the surprisingly

Permeable plastic bag and the clean water and soap

Failed to, well, clean.

My skin is summer leather,

Tanned and supple save for

A few crinkly edges where

Sun and age remind that

Summer will bring winter

Summoned by the season,

I will wake into darkness,

Stretch life into dormant limbs

And rise from this cloistered

Bed where I have slept

A sort of frenzy rides the winds,

And instinct sure responds