Rite Of Summer

Slowly rising like the sun,
Birds assemble one by one
Above the early morning hoers
And cacophonous hand mowers,

Floating warbles, trills, and krees
On the slowly building breeze
As the countryside awakes
In a scattered scratch of rakes,

Turning thinly orchestrated day
Into summer's full Bizet,
The larynx's harmonic vengeance
On the winter's silent engines,

The raucous clone of light and lawn
From the DNA of dawn.

Chateau de Chissay, Loire
November 2nd, 1999