the cardinal flower blooms

Summer Ends   

summer ends:
the cardinal flower blooms and tells me
it’s time to go home
to where my better half waits
and to where I’m called
to be as champion to child after child
beset by the gauntlet of becoming,

in summer I also build and connect
and find ways to lose myself in the making,
yet summer is when I more easily
find time and space for myself:
to follow whatever wisps call to me in the wild,
to sing with my voice, my camera, my soul,
to the animals, flowers, rocks, and streams
which greet me in the morning,

summer recedes, the day drops away,
my “to do” lists call me,

the people, places, events, and things of the past crowd upon my thoughts,
I only barely imagine what will fill my heart and days to come,

the cardinal flower blooms,
the sun sets,
it’s time to move on.

by Henry H. Walker
August 8, ’12