Summer Quatrains

The sky's warm summer air smoothed the hour

And the moon flush red came swimming near

As this earth, our celestial bower

Passed those starry states and saffron cheer.

The stars in your eyes used to dwell,

But by some new born clouds were dimmed;

Can’t you still those same stars tell

Which like in our skies, in your eyes once brimmed?

Your sight did throw me into pangs of Love

And in the world’s many hues did color you,

Like the hand ensconced in a pure white glove,

Or an angel swimming in the airy blue.

Like our world dressed in delicate blue,

I longed those dreamlike seas to sail;

The ocean from sleepy shores seemed true,

For her sunken ships could no more wail.

I no more trust the warm season,

The summer air is now so jaded,

Which birds once filled with joyous reason,

But have all since quickly faded.

I used to sing to the fresh soft air

And only in the winter shivered,

Spring once made every flower fair

Until my love that summer withered.

All the flowers from winter suffer

And our earth’s frail forms all refuge seek,

The empty skies with no birds shimmer

As a fallen snow flake greets my cheek.

Yet let forty-winters oppress my breast

And no flowers find in this wintry scene,

Still winter’s teeth will not lay rest

Upon the ever verdant Laurel green.

David is a translator, poet and linguist based in Montreal.