A Lament on Summer

While the days were long
    And summer glowed and let us out
My love for you was bright
    And simple.  An eternity in sunlight
Dappled shade, warm breezes, water.
    It was not to end, as all lovers
Know, it was to be as eternal as God.
    As Heaven and Angels.

But woe to us, we live in time, and
    Are snatched away by shortness,
Distance, sickness, and all manner of distress.
    And so all I have are tears in a bottle
Somewhere in the hand of Love.
    Freckles; summer skin, long hair,
And cut-grass smell.  Deep pools, dark
    Depths in which you float, suspended.
And green avocados, whole brown bread,
    And after sunset over the Shenandoah,
Paper lanterns in the sky.

O Love, lose not, the moments of my grace
    When once I loved, was young,
And it was summer in my little world
    And all Your gifts spoke of forever.