The Long-Running Poem Series About the Summer of 2006 Enters Its Final Month

August 9, 2006
I’ve been gone a long time

to Lake Tahoe
Mendocino
and then unexpectedly
to Raleigh
for Bill’s grandfather’s funeral

There are of course
a thousand impressions
from the last dozen days
but here
for now
is just a brief sampling

It rained one afternoon in Tahoe
when only Bill and I were home in the cabin
out reading on the deck
We moved inside
sat on the couch and watched
through the big A-frame windows
as it came down in a fine silver mist
and smelled the ozone rain smell
and the wet green plant smell

In Point Arena there was
the cutest bakery in the world
at which we bought a tiny pie
in a yellow ceramic dish we got to keep
And it was one of the best pies
that we have ever tasted
peach rhubarb with a lattice top 

Today there was
a tiny dark gray slug
in the planter of herbs
outside the overpriced salad place
crawling along
quite quickly actually
on some thyme