Summer

I want summer to last forever,
when we aren’t the gangly weeds of spring
and our flowers have met the sun
and we can smile and wave
in summer breezes through the fields. 

I want to stay here in summer,
twenty and stupid and shy,
in love and too-wide grin
and blurred photographs when
the night drops but the heat won’t fade. 

And I could do that,
sit in summer and count the freckles
until my skin burns red and it aches.
I could walk the burning sands
and if there’s no summer breeze then
I could do that too. 

But others don’t like the heat
and wish for the cooler autumn
when the colours explode
and the knots in the trees grow wide.
I fear the brown leaves and
the rustle in the air and the
drop of heat into cool anonymity. 

Leave me in the summer
and move on to your autumns.
I will not see the winter
as anything more than a desert mirage.