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A Poem for Summer


  Camp Song

In the pale light

of a canvas tent dawn,

cicadas kazoo

the last verses of their camp song,

that tinnitus of summer.

Hidden in beds of thin grass,

crickets whistle

their own tinny hymn,

and out by the pond

amorous tree frogs blurt

wet advances too late now 

for evening love.

In the dim air,

dashes of new sun backlight

leftover brown bats catching

the last slow mosquitoes,

while mockingirds breaking

their full moon fast

fly from feeder

to field to feeder.

A redwing cries;

a woodpecker tattoos

the trunk of a water oak.

Hummingbirds buzz

the butterfly bush.

Jays puncture the air,

and in the oldest pecan tree,

two squirrels run

spiraled wind sprints,

risking the attention

of the new puppy 

sleeping at the feet

of a woman who sings

to meet the morning.

 

by Anne McCrady

appears in Letting Myself In and Her Texas

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