Summer bursts forth from spring
In vibrant greens and deep blues. 
Icy chills of lake water, laced with tendrils of kelp and sunlight 
Heat that makes me feel alive.
Staying up late to watch the sun dip below the horizon
Making a dramatic exit for the night. 

As quickly as summer came
I feel a chill in the air. 
My lips taste crispness, clouds heavy with moisture
Cooler days and darker nights envelop me. 
Gold, orange, and crimson leaves clutter the ground
Mesmerizing in their decay. 
As the trees show me how beautiful it is
To let the dead things go. 

Ever present below the trees
The welcoming cool of unchiseled headstones. 
Bitter wind whips between them
As dry branches rattle, and ancient trunks creak. 
As surely as summer turns to fall
Transitions are part of life. 

I release what is dead to embrace new life
But not without a visit from grief. 
Who sometimes can be a lengthy visitor
Depending on how dearly held that which was lost.
I have a choice in transition, to reject or embrace. 
I open the door and say to grief, “I’ve been expecting you.”

I invite grief to sit down, uncertain how long it will stay
Outside my window I see the unchiseled headstones
Watching leaves descend on bitter wind. 
I mourn what has been lost, in the summers of my soul
Where there is grief, there can also be beauty
Waiting for new life to come again.