Elegy for June
ephemeral mistress of my heart
one-twelve of the annum
a nightcap on the verandah of the year
a lilting melodic breath
on a moonful night.
June,
you nostalgic one,
spinning webs I can scarce recall
you remind me of a 40s musical
glamorous and leggy
fresh and naive
month of my birth
day of the summer equinox
you vernal infernal month
pregnant with possibility
setting hopes impossibly high
with hormone-fed memories
of lockers and school hallways
strewn with paper like confetti
the last day of class papers old homeworks and jaundiced notebooks
suddenly wonderfully useless
icons reduced to simpering strawmen
they crinkle and burn in the summer sun
in the June sun so potent
in whose heat
responsibilities melt away
shrinking like tumors without blood
and time expands like a balloon
or the rising of the circus tents.
Sliding on our backs down the paper highway
firing the contents of our lockers
down the hall like bullets
screaming out hot bus windows
screaming to the feckless masses
in transit
singing to them-
“schools out for summer....”
“school’s out forever”
till our eyes want to bust
and the veins pop from our necks.
June, you were meant for kids.
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