Farewell Summer

Written upon redaing the 85 yr old ray Bradbury's latest novel "farewell Summer."

Farewell Summer



Giddy, I was

Like Christmas Day

Breath held in anticipation

At the Crackling

Reluctant yielding

Of a new binding as it opened



Red Martian dirt

Like rain from the pages

Nearly four-hundred-fifty-one degrees

In my flushed face

And the jack hammer thump

As my heart greets an old friend



And what is that smell?

Crisp October skies

Candlelit pumpkins and skulls

Green town Illinois

With it sweet, sweet summer

Captured I a bottle of dandelion wine



Anxious at page one

Elated at thirty-one

Like autumn leaves, windblown

Pages feed hunger

Turned to foreboding

Upon papyrus one-hundred-seventeen



At the last sentence

The last period

As we smile, breathe deep and part ways

My second father

Will he speak to me again?

Or, are these words carved in tombstone marble?



Can I, scheming

Ration, syllable by syllable

Our conversation, for years to come?

The Grim reaper

Held at bay, frustrated

By my ingenious, intentional procrastination?



Might I, by ignoring,

Hold back tides of time?

An ocean, by will, current less?

Might I, with one hand

Hold tight that merry-go-round

So time moves neither back or forth?



My hunger is deep

Metaphor for my meals

Like a starving man at Christmas dinner

Can I? Dare I?

Lick the plate clean

And devour every word?