gentle rain links this soft night
with soil, still steaming from the day –
ride upwards to those stars in wafts of early summer.
and already the seed of fall is getting ready,
yawning, stretching, scratching the green of a blade here and there.
solstice tonight, and everything here contains everything.
those clouds that cover the dark, dark blue that is not quite yet midnight,
they make the evening look blacker than it need be,
and as they lurk there by my window, i think of colder nights.
and still, there are so many flowers yet that will need more nights, more rain,
until they show their virgin heads, their fragile, fragile petals,
so many leaves of green still embryonic, far from ready to unfold –
this solstice: winter frost is calling, crunchy leaves afoot,
and even daffodils, i know they’ll come again;
but until then
tomorrow morning
the birds will wake up early
and the roses, red, pink, orange,
they will greet me with their laughing thorns.