Ode to the Indian Summer

O cruel goddess of warmth! I know that you lie,

And envelop the world in your temporal shroud

As chicanery brings you to trick us, to lie

Under every blue sky, under every soft cloud

For I know that the dead crunching leaves do belie

Time’s truth in your swift deadly turn of the crowd.

O malicious dear heart! You bring halcyon days

As you creep in the stillness and wait for the time

When innocent younglings dance in Helios’s rays

And old ones rejoice: no more chill! No more grime!

All the while watching in wait for the praise

To end, as you catch the naïve in their prime.

Sweet temptress of light! Your reign will end soon,

As, one by one, tenderlings succumb to your touch;

And your sweet sickly stillness gives way to the moon.

Yet I lay, all the while, enraptured in your clutch

As your soft shroud unravels in a cold afternoon.

Dear hag, your fill of Gaia’s youth has been much.