Sleep and Waking By H.R. Coursen
Summer incorporated rain – weaving trails of rain
that sent whatever heat there might have been to stones,
waiting for the cold of full-moon tides.
Even the monarch August was subdued,
as if no rear-guard was worth expending before
the color in the leaf began to seep
along the green of all horizons, visible
and invisible, inside the sweep of cloud.
Ebbing and flowing uncertainly inside the season,
along the edge of weedy bays,
amid the years and the loss that years inherit,
even summer suggested stick-thin futurities.
The loss is captured in the twisting leaf as,
along the stiffness of its veins it shows
where the tallest pines persist, enduring.
Summer incorporated rain: weaving trails of rain
ebbing and flowing uncertainly inside the season
that sent whatever heat there might have been to stones
along the edge of weedy bays,
waiting for the cold of full-moon tides.
Amid the years and the loss that years inherit,
even the monarch August was subdued,
even summer suggested stick-thin futurities,
as if no rear-guard were worth expending before
the loss is captured in the twisting leaf as
the color of the leaf begins to seep
along the stiffness of its veins. It shows
along the green of all horizons visible
where the tallest pines persist, enduring,
and invisible within the sweep of cloud.
