Summer of the Lilac (poem)

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Summer of the Lilac

by John C. Paschalis

The tranquil days

of that Southern summer

are gone.

I no longer weave baskets

of fern leaves and lilac petals,

but I still sow

the silts of your favorite canal

with seeds.

Your smile, despite these long years,

still drowns me with nourishment.

Beneath your blue eyes,

its beauty rains on me,

like drops on parched dirt

from which a lilac tree sprouts.

In those days, I dreamed that

a family of earthbound angels

laced the canal silts

with ambrosia. I imagined that you furrowed

into the warm feathers of a cherub,

his inviolate wings

carrying you safely over the water.

And when you landed,

water nymphs swam to the surface

and crowned you

with a garland of lily pads.

Longing to be like that cherub,

I lifted you to a windowsill,

where you marveled at a kitten

splashing in a gray puddle

of rainwater.