Dripping juice of peaches
gulps of lemonade, after heat
drenched our hair and body.
This is the taste of abundance -
sweeter because of the lack
fuller because of the wait.
August has left us
yearning for crisp autumn,
for yellows in squash and leaves,
for warmth in sweaters -
the absence of sweat.
For awhile, joy was in
the heat, the work necessary
to settle in, make tidy a room
meant for tea and
the words of great minds.
Joy was in the plowing,
the sowing, the waiting,
as humidity consumed our clothes
and water was our relief.
Now fall is our hope for repose.
What we sowed in August,
we will steward well
in the loveliness of September -
eat slowly what was
put into and pulled from
the rich ground.