In August
In August
Poem
Heat urges secret odors from the grass.
Blunting the edge of silence, crickets shrill.
Wings veer: inane needles of light, and pass.
Laced pools: the warm wood-shadows ebb and fill.
The wind is casual, loitering to crush
The sun upon his palate, and to draw
Pungence from pine, frank fragrances from brush,
Sucked up through thin grey boughs as through a straw.
Moss-green, fern-green and leaf and meadow-green
Are broken by the bare, bone-colored roads,
Less moved by stirring air than by unseen
Soft-footed ants and meditative toads.
Summer is passing, taking what she brings:
Green scents and sounds, and quick ephemeral wings.
Notes
Written by Babette Deutsch.
Thanks and Acknowledgements
This poem can be found in "The Bookman Anthology of Verse"
(1922).
Image: Monet "Walk (Road of the Farm Saint-Siméon)" (1864). Lightness and contrast edited by Lisa.
