Summer's Last Words

Perhaps summer’s last words are still tender on my eardrum. Today her emptiness has put on weight as a new season descends on either side of me, streaked with gold – fiery leaves laden with farewells that speak my name between tall trees and vineyard rows, whispered with a brilliant hissing.

Maybe as I watch the tired bird of her body leaving the land, licking roses of their petals and seeding spring crops of thistle, there is a restlessness to her reddish glow, as if she is late to hear her own slow, sweet song vanishing behind the lit woods. I cut the last leaf of fragrant basil and she is gone. I do not know who has closed the window.