We’re only here for the summer,
living in tee shirts, sandals,
Waking early, to watch sunlight rise over the hill.

We read and talk and walk the dog.
and after lunch, we sleep.

Friends come for dinner;
we drink green wine,
eat grilled fish,
tomatoes, dressed with olive oil and capers
There’s icy watermelon, peaches, figs.
We listen to crooners whose names we used to know.
In the long evenings, the sky ripens into deepening plum.

We’re spending the summer here,
warm days,
before the short hours — the winter of our age.

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Charlotte Cooper is an encaustic painter who has a secret passion for the written word- for writing the written word. Since her children left on their own adventures, she has time for both. She finds life tasty and mysterious. She lives in Northern California with a singular man (to whom she’s married) and a fine dog. charlottecooperencaustics.com

Photo: Noorulabdeen Ahmad