Summer in the City

 

 

 

I've painted my toes in "Shell-Shock Pink",

To wander the city streets.

The colour is bright and celebrating,

The season and people in sync.

The cafes are filled with summer diners,

Paying homage to the sweet, mild night.

Carafes of wine and sunburned faces,

Glow from latticework draped in lights.

The scent of perfume floats through the air,

Like notes on a music sheet.

It's a summit of senses and liberation of spirit,

When both city and season meet.

Children arm themselves with ice cream cones,

Their mouths lined in chocolate frames.

They parade down the street, vanquishing their treats,

And nurturing the craving they've tamed.

Some gifts of the summer in stained wooden planters,

Are the margins on the city road.

In colours and scents that cannot be labelled,

Exclusively from what nature bestows.

The lyrics of laughter in a melody of joy,

Peal through the urban night.

The street lights and signs are shamefully humbled,

And take umbrage to the omnipotent moonlight.

There is a sense of the present and of "carpe diem",

Amid the audience of this summer show.

As they drink in their wine and the sustenance from summer,

In the back of their minds, they know.

If they look up above to the balcony of branches,

From the trees that sheathe the street.

They'll see flashes of orange, or yellow and red,

Fall's foreboding being brilliantly discrete.