It can still seem like a long slow trek
through heat and drought
till the rains come,
but August also starts to offer
glimmers of civility  –
dawn a little later,
sunset sooner,
the beat of heat
a little shorter,
and these weightless moments
where time floats in golden glow,
and crickets and grasses,
turkeys and deer,
bracken and fir
go about their lives,
where presence is sufficient,
holding and deserving all attention,
compelling us
with the eternal now.

©Wendy Mulhern
August 2, 2021