Deep in Summer - with audio link

 Audio Link

Where have all the cars gone
Not as many as before
The way seems empty,
The people faded

Ground turns brown

Quiet sifting of the sands
Lonely nightingale searches calling out

Singing, will you join me deep in summer
Longing is deep, deep in summer

So goes each one in a tunnel of
His or her own yellow sun
In a burrow of singular fun
Shooting out the other side
Of a black hole’s door
Where the light is stored
For a rainy day’s thunderstorm
Pouring down, down deep in summer

Rainy days and lightening are deep, deep in summer

Travel on to the commonplace
The business space,
The pent up race
There the heat,
It cannot touch you
Windows cannot see you
Skinny life measured out
Skyscrapers deep in summer

Offices bound in glass, deep, deep in summer

 Puffy comics barely read

In the sky play overhead
But ignore those within
Hearts line up armored inside
Against the bird song’s steady stream
Marching dutifully toward five
When ocean tide of green bursts free
All things come alive sprout and grow deep in summer

Anticipation is reaching out deep, deep in summer

Then sun and moon
Descend like dew
To moisten every eye and renew

Break down the walls

Melting shields and weapons

To pour friendship in each one
Wherein grows love
Within long glances deep in summer
Love grows enraptured and unfolding deep, deep in summer

A baby crying,
A mother calling,
A school yard full of laughter
The Ice cream melting
Slowly down the horizon
The crickets playing
Old timers talking
The light of lives shining deep in summer

Families and neighborhoods deep, deep in summer

Ladybug and ants
Creep along the rose stem
Sigh and wipe away the perspiration
Buttery thick the air

As twilight fades
Restless flies in kitchen never notice
Pleading, clinging June bugs
Breath of sighing flora deep in summer

Damp heat,  and insects thrive deep, deep in summer

CRASH, goes the screen door
Moist aimless hair
Dirty ruddy freckles,
Glowing, curious, eyes
Hanging, questioning mouth
Drinking in breath
Corners turned up in happiness
Animated hunger deep in summer
Smiles of the young are deep, deep in summer

Jays and Starlings
Weaving nest and song
Crow cries out his raspy word
Starry Night comes to birth
Life circles about the streetlight

A dog barks

Then Silence

Rest calls the creature deep in summer

Stunning silence is deep, deep in summer

A tugboat groans somewhere in the dark
Something hisses, the night glows red
Yawning coke ovens across the deep

Burning rivers find relief

The distance whispers back
Breathing, beating, black, pulsing

The steaming heart of a steel press
Sounds in the night deep in summer

And the rivers flow deep, deep in summer

Sleep comes to bed, raccoons play outside

Humid, stormy dreams conjure,
In the yard skunk and possum wander

Under damp linen clouds, like seeds plowed
Traveling faces, friends, and family,

Lips, arms, foes, charms, till the soul is calmed
Then refreshed by cool morning breezes
As clarity of day quietly calls our name
Awakening as night and creature go to sleep deep in summer
A heart beating, beating, beating deep, deep in sssssssummer.