July Fading

Time ticks away the final hours of summer 

The sun shifts. The heat persists. Stroke after stoke, thoughts of classes, lessons and meetings erase the lingering softness of the season,

Vistas of Buzzard's Bay with rarely seen family, 

Walks on the crunchy, shelled beaches of Wings Neck, 

Happily braving the ocean winds on a Chappequiot island stroll to the Family Boathouse, 

    the same grey-shingled house where my mother would summer with her cousins as a child in the 30s

I wrap myself in the fraying shawl of summer comforts

    against the impending cold of schedules and obligations

I breathe the thinning air of sun-soaked Cape beach days, 

    dripping coconut popsicles from the ice cream truck 

Central Park picnic on a sultry afternoon. 

    Grown sons

     New friends

    Dogs and toddlers running mindlessly on the green slopes, 

        oblivious to anything but the pure joy of movement

Lamplights flickering at dusk

New York skyline silhouettes at sunset

July fading.