Late Summer Evening

Summer dwindles
and cools her heels in courtyard corners -
ducking behind sand dunes,
counting scarlet leaves
and harvest moons
in warm breaths off the gulf.
Ochre glints in the grass
where monarchs hold court
and dapple the air
with new wings.
And in the distance,
the hurdy gurdy ice cream man
kilters, truck careening,
chasing down the dusk
as children play tag
through sprinklers in the dying light.
Mothers unpin ghosts from clothes lines
and gather on porch swings
to sip Scuppernog and trade secrets
while street lamps spark to attention
their soft halos melting
into mottled green and black
where fireflies vie for attention
and pale white moths laze across spun gold....