Just past the limit of solstice,
summertime’s attenuation:
this chalky blue day hazed in heat,
sunlight suffusing air and grass,
reader and book, the weight of light
abeyant, as fireflies await,
forestalled, their turn to glow, ascend
blinking above the darkened lawn.
Silly–to think the longest day
gave extra time for gassings, dusk
delayed, as if the nude and shaved
were not always chambered, or flames
did not ignite the sky until
the later night began.