A summer poem

I know summer by the zinnias

Good stock like royalty

They rise and spread and showcase

Hearty practical fingers reaching

I know summer by red hornets

Hovering like spycraft above the weedy grass

Dark winged superheroes

I know summer by girls who read

in living room forts or strewn across couches

Making cookies and singing songs

With words that rhyme

I know summer by the way the light hits

The way he saunters by

The way the dog sleeps

The way I lie in bed for hours in the afternoon

basking in the decadence of cardinals.

But mostly I know summer by the zinnias

Cut in vases and spread across rooms

When the short term mind fades

they will still be planted

Forever summer, rising tall toward the sky.