Just after sunset
We walked down the hill

The northwest wind drove the sea aclattering the length of the shingle beach.
Sharp edged waves raced across the bay.
The wind’s rough caress bent the red grasses
And stirred the ranks of spruce waiting beyond the meadow’s edge.
Above the dark line of the horizon the clouds glowed
stained bright red from the sun’s dying light.

The shadows grew among the trees and dared now to spread forth
From the margins of the forest, the screech owl
Challenged the coming night
The few houses glowed.

I felt the push of the wind
Dry and cool
Whispering of seasons to come

It’s telling me it’s time
I know
In days now I’ll trade away my wild freedom
Trade the vivid green island summer
For the bare dry, brown of the high veldt winter

Set aside tools and dreams
Pick up responsibility
Like baggage I checked in
and now must claim.

My travelling clothes have hung these few weeks in a corner
Now I’ll shrug back into jacket and ironed pants
Button a shirt
My calluses will wash away
the scratches on my legs from hauling logs will fade


Somewhere on the way I’ll trade the fierce concentration and open smile
for a staid professional demeanor
A matter of shifting from git r’ done to getting along.

Last night we watched the sunset and Cory said
I love it when she’s all the way over to the harbor
So far north now
And don’t I hate to see her move all the way around
until she sets off the end of Little Gotts
You know what I mean Ben


And yes, I said, I do
Everything is possible now
With the days so long
And the sun as far north as she’ll go

Ain’t it just, he said
Did you hear what Ben said Barb, he hollered
And then he brought out a Mason jar of moonshine
That’s what the label said
Moonshine with a cinnamon stick

Try some of that Ben, he said
And I poured a glass and drank
Spice and sweet and a burn at the back of my throat
and I thought
oh summer, this short and fleeting season
oh summer

because the wind has shifted around to the northwest now
and it’s telling all the world it’s time for me to go