Summer Left

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Summer left as it always does
Without leaving a note
It simply snuck out of the house one night
Being careful not to let the screen door slam
Disappearing like a lover who knew
That this could not last forever.
And just like that
gone is
The tiptoeing sea
The sunbaked shoulders
The breeze swaying hammock
The flung-open windows
The moony kiss
The night-lit carousel
The giggles of dusk
That travel like fireflies
until everyone is safe
and accounted for.
And now 
I am staring at this October afternoon
The sky
Is Joni Mitchell Blue
The clouds
escalator by
Losing strands of cotton white hair
A concession to age
Later, the sky will turn as black as
an ancient 78
playing the ghost chords 
Of a long-vanished pianist
a Schubert impromptu, perhaps
Whose every note
Like the snowflakes to come
is an opportunity to quietly fly

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