Solstice

June.

The solstice light
Lending a grey glow
Deep into the night of summer stars.

Arcturus, Vega, Deneb and Altair
Pin the web of constellations on silver nails,
Stringing stories across the sky.
The Milky Way hangs like the faintest streak of cloud.
Nothing is what it seems.

How the air is still, pregnant with scent,
Humming with insect
Vital with life.

You can almost hear the leaves flexing their growth,
Roots snuffling down wormholes,
Fruit ballooning on trees.

Even the moon is bellying through her phases;
The tides easing to fullness,
The world practising beauty
And bounty
For once.

(c) A McN

Hurricane Katrine has passed over New Orleans since writing this. The contrasts between the benevolence of nature and her powerful capriciousness is keenly felt.