A SUMMER EVENING

The cool, sweet, moist,
Summer, evening smell
Of clover
Settles on me,
Even as darkness
Settles on the earth,
Cloaking me
In peaceful exhilaration.
The music of the many crickets
Fills my ears
With nature’s energy and rhythms
At the close of day.
The misty moon haunts me,
Hanging there,
Amongst the silhouettes
Of weathered pines,
Evoking an emptiness,
So I close my eyes,
And my ears are filled again
By crickets chi-chi-chi-ing,
And I find peace once more,
Rooted in the earth,
My home for now,
A stepping-stone to heaven;
But, for now,
I feel the cooling breeze
And the mosquito’s bite,
And fill my lungs with clover smells:
Just happy to be here.