curving borders of a flower garden
define summer days

lying languidly in a hammock
gazing skyward

at the News helicopter
hovering,

hovering

over the site of the massacre

tall trees rise on all sides
one angled like the leaning tower of Pisa

enclosed
in a world of green
proclaiming life has the upper hand

Tiger Lilies bloom
in a splash of orange
over
summer’s short reprieve
the long, cold dark space to return

not yet,
first
fluttering butterflies
birdsong