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Late Summer

by Robert Ronnow

It has been beautiful, late August, full moon
a million crickets following
a million fireflies in June,
a million May peepers. Immersed
in insect, amphibian cycles, I am a mammal, drugged,
crossing the road, car approaching
fast, unnoticed.
I would choose to die in late summer.
Why?
So that my wife would have autumn, intense,
to grieve by,
snowy bandages with which to bind the wound,
and spring to reawaken into.
Summer to remember that she's loved.

"Late Summer" was originally published in New & Collect Poems 1975-2005.

Robert was inspired to write this poem one summer in part because of an unusually large number of sick raccoons staggering into local roadways and being hit by cars. His most recent poetry collections are Communicating the Bird (Broken Publications, 2012) and New & Selected Poems: 1975-2005 (Barnwood Press, 2007). Visit his website.