POEM: Short summer

‘We wait so long…it goes so fast’

August 19, 2026

By Sue Shaw

Queen Anne’s lace, a summer flower staple. Photo by Unsplash.

Short Summer

Queen Anne’s lace and buzzing bees,

Black-eyed Susans, shady trees…                    

Noon-time heat that bakes and fries…

The absence of those darn black flies!

Full-blown summer—here at last—

We wait so long…it goes so fast!

July and August seem to fly…

We map each moment as we try

To stretch those days…prolong…extend…

Truth is, summer’s SHORT, my friend!

—Shaw lives in Penobscot.

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