Summer Day

Heat comes
after the cool of morning
down out of a clear blue sky
that reaches upwards
towards forever.

Land bakes under
oven-air that parches
grass and flower,
sears the soul
and wearies hearts and limbs.

Over the mountains building,
towering, darkening
clouds confound
the sunbright heat,
lift gales,
fling lightning bolts
with a crack and grumble
and rain buckets down at last
to bludgeon flowers
into the sudden mud
but the grass endures
and even likes it.

Passing,
on their own, wind-driven,
clouds sail
towards the next horizon…
Clear bright heat,
the sun returns
takes back the wet
and the relief until
declining in the sky
descends
behind the mountains
where the clouds began.

_{August 2011 CL Redding
revisions 2024}