sun-stroken
in June, summer-honey-spoon
I'd rather walk by Flower-Moon
in August, Lammas - wine and trust -
sun-haze, the combine-harvest dust
come October - when life's shit -
I cannot get enough of it
and have to wait so patiently
for Brighid wakening
for thee
© Kathy Labrum McVittie March 2021, amended 23 August 2024
A re-working of a peom I wrote on my conservatory wall (in pencil, in 2021) to meet De Jackson’s summertime Quadrille challenge (exactly 44 words including a form of “summer”) at dVerse.
Happy summer holidays, sunshine lovers, from my shady sojourning at 58 degrees north!!
writingpresence 
Wow, this is really, really beautiful, Kathy ❤
Much love,
David
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Why, thank you! It has been evolving over the last months and I have also made a longer version from the oriinal stub.
I love your response to the same summer Quadrille Challenge but unfortunately your website won’t accept my comment, which is this:
For a start, what a title! [ https://skepticskaddish.com/2024/07/23/your-oyster-or-shell-collection/%5D
I love that you have explored the blur of grey, here.
Yet – as I discovered once in a watercolour paint-blending exercise – the components of sombre grey can be resolved into vibrant precursors: orange and indigo; alizarin and viridian; rose and leaf green.
Some greys are subtle and soothing; relaxing and restorative.
May that be so for you x
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🧡🙏🏻 thanks, Kathy! 🙏🏻🧡
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You had me at “summer-honey-spoon.” Goodness. Then add the rhyme scheme here, and I’m a goner. Beautiful.
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Thank you for your sweet praise, De!
My ex used to keep Honey-bees (as well as his work revolving around cereal harvest statistics), and I associate the hot days of late June with him “taking off” the oilseed rape (canola) honey before it set solid in the comb, and with me decanting the filtered honey into 1 lb jars and labelling them for sale at the end of our drive. People used to buy it – solid milkywhite and hard to spread – to immunise themselves from sneezles/runny eyes associated with the flowering crop.
More honey-knife than honey-spoon, but there we go! Our own brief honey-moon was in May.
In northern Scotland where I summer, I see mostly Bumblebees working the heather on the moors, although I don’t venture out there by August because the deer ticks – some carrying Lyme Disease, which I’ve already had – are out in force.
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Oh! This is fun and so beautiful! You had me also at summer-honey-spoon. And almost coughed at combine-harvest dust.
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Thank you Chris, you had me laughing at your recognition of August dust! And the deep rumble of field machinery through the earth…
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So very beautiful, Kathy, from the first word to the last.
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Thank you, my dear Punam. An English, or lately, Scottish summer is so different from yours, I guess, and each experience has its golds and its greys… hope you are well dear one?
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