Flannel, Quilts and Nippy Nights

Summertime is finally fleeting
and oddly, though, I am not sad.
Yes, the fields will soon be emptied
of pastel-colored flowers and buzzing bees
and wading knee-deep in tall, wild grass
as the sun takes its time in setting,
late into the warm-breeze nights
that cause one to linger 
and gaze up into a sky 
transforming from azure to cobalt
with stars in infinite millions
bringing on a sense of wonder
that never ceases to delight.

However, Autumn is waiting
quietly beyond Summer's bend
and now and then you can hear it,
see it, feel it as it approaches.
Just little touches here and there.
But sure enough, it will break free
of Summer's green and yellow dreamy hold
to announce itself in snippets
of orange, red, russet and gold.
Yes, the days are still warm and sunny
but the darker early mornings 
and darker early evenings
are tell-tale as to what 
Autumn is really up to.

So this is the time that I relish most,
that in-between moment 
when we'll soon have 
a new seasonal host
that will require of us to put away
the shorts, the sandals,
the beach towels and lotions
that made our Summer
a sensuous journey
peppered with sunshowers,
thunderclouds, swims in the lake,
collecting shells on the shoreline
and charring vegetables on grills
and catching up on novels
for requisite lounge chair readings
and picking flowers in the garden
awash in scents and ladybugs
as iced drinks are sipped and savored
under umbrellas striped and wide.

Yes, this is the time
when flannel, quilts and nippy nights
become the wardrobe,
the bedcoverings,
the almost-black frosty evenings
that draw us to lighting candles, 
tending firesides,
brewing up extra coffee or tea
or reaching for cups of hot chocolate
or perhaps sifting through cookbooks
in search of something soothing to bake
that'll taste even better while
wrapped in a blanket or thick fuzzy robe
for requisite armchair readings
of long-held books, old letters, old photos
or just recalling beautiful memories 
of golden Summers past
that now bring comfort and peace
to our yearning Autumnal souls.

Copyright © Gregory Joseph Firlotte | Year Posted 2024

Please Login to post a comment