Strong August

(Photo of beet salad I made)

Dear Readers,

~Here is a recent journal entry poem I call "Strong August"--copr. Mary Ann Bencivengo

It was just like clockwork that I heard

the first crickets of summer in my yard

three days before the first of August,

my favorite month of all months. 

And how wondrous the woolly face of

a mammoth moth with mammoth eyes

I saw beside my door under 

the yellow glow of porch light.

Then came the monarchs, the amber-black life

of day and night, of living and dying in

the strong August sun as summer passes on.

It's spectacular, it's hot, and flowers

are in full bloom. The whole cosmos

shrieks with delight, like hawks circling 

overhead, My head is full of summer

dreams, the magic of fields and streams,

the magic lanterns on boats on the lake.

Such are the untold summers of the heart

of years and years of which the crickets speak.

*

A GIANT CENTIPEDE

on the old gray stone patio

runs right up to my toes!

I scream and it runs away and disappears

under the concrete anchor of the table!

It will probably be back!

A SPINDLY RED-BROWN SPIDER

parachutes under the patio table umbrella

on a large strand of dewy expanse,

like a trapeze artist enjoying the breeze!

I first notice it when it 

whooshes by at the level of my third eye!

I swooped it up in a big leaf in my hands

so I could continue to write in peace!

SO I PITCHED ANOTHER WATERMELON RIND

onto the compost heap of tall wonder, and wonder

if the groundhog will eat it! I know

it likes the beet leaves,

but the garden beets do not like it that it likes them!

If you have a garden, you know how it goes:

all the beet leaves are full of holes!

THE GROUNDHOG LIVES

under my shed, it has burrowed

a nest unseen to my naked eyes!

The shed is situated right under the brightest star

of Capricornus this time this year!

Another family of groundhogs network,

constellate like stars under a parked car

it seems someone can't start anymore! 

It seems the groundhog family is on vacation,

exclaiming, "This is the life!--on the lake!"

I could swear I once saw one of them smile

more than once! They want

for nothing! The universe provides it all! 

Even metal all rusted comes from the earth!

MARIGOLDS! BURSTS OF GREAT BALLS OF FIRE

abound around the ground of the vegetable garden,

but none of them have bloomed yet in a spot

over there, by the beets. So much depends

on the little tin buckets, on a line by the beets, 

to keep the groundhogs away when they clang 

in the wind--the groundhog does not know he is not privileged

to the beet leaves, so helps himself to the program, this

garden creation story, this ***BIG BANG*** still bursting

through the eco-system of the massive cosmos 

in this little neck of the woods!

So much depends on the marigolds

to keep garden pests away!

So much end-of-summer pleasure depends

on having delicious vinegar and oil beet salad! 

*

It is a strong August, 

after all, stronger

than the world is small! 

(Grapevines Patio Ceiling at Firelands Winery, Sandusky, OH by M. Bencivengo)

~~~

Truly,

Mary Ann