The Summer Solstice

Weeks pass
My head is three feet higher than it should be
The air is so present:
I can feel myself hanging with the string lights.
Why am I so observant?
And yet---
My little brother’s tricks still work on me so well
I try to feel as much as I can
But I feel a lot of half-time,
Half-space
I don’t recognize pieces of time less than twenty minutes in size
In a moment the summer is over.
Every year I await the summer solstice----the 21st of June
I say, “I will surely catch it this year”
Every year, without fail, it is a week past the solstice—
“I’ve missed it again! Oh my oh my oh my I’m going to be late, late late
For a very important date----the 21st.
And in this sad realization
(That happens every year)
I feel the days getting shorter and so so so much shorter—
Quick, pass me the salt
I feel the days contracting
I eat a bowl of cereal and milk;
It is 12:36 a.m.
My my, how time flies!