by Martin Heflin

Created on: October 22, 2009   Last Updated: October 23, 2009

JUNE DREAMS


Outside the window the hemlock pine's
Branches are waving gently in a heat undulating
Breeze that is early summer.
A newborn robin rests on a branch deep inside
The tree rising and falling on the wind
Like a sailor in a gentle rolling sea.
The lawn needs mowing and trimming,
But I in ceiling fan and cicada hummed
Silence sit and contemplate another
Summer approaching,

Another set of June dreams.

Backward I go to a time when
Giddy at school's release we relished
The unending expanse that was a summer's
Day untrammeled by passage of the hours.
Each day a canvas to be sketched, blotched, or carefully crafted.
Each day lolling in the luxurious heat cooled down by
Sprinkler or pool.
How quickly it ended and the last Sunday arrived
When with anxious stomach you bedded down knowing
That dawn would come and through the smells of fresh
Mowed lawns you would return to school.
Prior to turning out the lights a survey of freshly purchased notebooks
And number 2 pencils neatly sharpened.
Always a book report left half-finished,
Always June dreams left unfulfilled.

Forward now to a time when a gray man sits
Quietly rocking pondering the endless cycle of a ceiling fan
As cicadas whir outside in early morning in late May.
Round and round the blades draw their endless circles on the
Ceiling as his mind screws back through the years to
A balancing robin above an unmowed lawn.
Then round and round to a giddy heart fresh out of school.
He thinks of June dreams and closes his eyes.

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