Summer Paradelle - Anyonita Green

“I know I am but summer to your heart.”*
“I know I am but summer to your heart.”
Southern: hot and sticky, blazing sun
Southern: hot and sticky, blazing sun
I know I am southern, hot and sticky,
but summer to your blazing sun-heart.

Or English and damp, dank and cold
Or English and damp, dank and cold
Almost an autumn of sorts, preparing to die
Almost an autumn of sorts, preparing to die
Almost preparing to die, dank and cold
Or an autumn English damp and of sorts.

Still, you come to explore what lies like territory
Still, you come to explore what lies like territory
And coils back at your touch—wavering, shy
And coils back at your touch—wavering, shy
You come to explore what coils back like territory
And still lies at your touch, wavering, shy.

I am hot and sticky, damp, dank or cold,
and, to your heart, almost an autumn territory.
Southern and still, blazing sun coils, wavering at your touch.
I know you like summer lies.
Preparing sorts of English shy, come back
to explore but what, and to die?


* a line from a sonnet by Edna St. Vincent Millay