Did I realize one pool is closing THIS SUNDAY and the other one is only going to be open on weekdays for another week? Is it darker just a little bit earlier now? Did the light change just enough to make me think, “Oh no, summer is starting to wind down”? Time for Adrienne Rich!
Contradictions: Tracking Poems No. 28
by Adrienne Rich
This high summer we love will pour its light
the fields grown rich and ragged in one strong moment
then before we’re ready will crash into autumn
with a violence we can’t accept
a bounty we can’t forgive
Night frost will strike when the noons are warm
the pumpkins wildly growing the green tomatoes
straining huge on the vines
queen anne and blackeyed susan will straggle rusty
as milkweed stakes her claim
she who will stand at last dark sticks barely rising
up through the snow her testament of continuation
We’ll dream of a longer summer
but this is the one we have:
I lay my sunburnt hand
on your table: this is the time we have