Long Island Summers

I’d go back
for just a moment, 
perhaps as long
as one August day and a night,
enough, I think, 
to relish what I loved
about Long Island summers.

Scents of ragweed,
seared grasses, 
almost-too-sweet roses
in the heavy summer air…

Glittering waters,
hot, hot sand
and tiny shells
hiding in the drying
seaweed margin of the tide…

Early mornings
sun like a glowing peach
soft-lit hazy cool
’til nearly 10…

And thunderstorms
some afternoons
that bruise the air
and break the back 
of humid heat’s oppression…

Cicada-noisy nights,
lit here and thereby sudden 
silent sparks
of spectral yellow, green
and random
like imaginings 
or magic,
to be captured 
briefly 
in a jar…

It’s the fireflies I miss the most…

CL Redding 2016