Summer is a Man in a Blue Denim Shirt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

[Update August 4th 2018: Oh, what a difference 10 years makes! Here we are, in one of the hottest summers the UK, much of Europe and beyond has known for decades! Oh, but where is that rain now, and how can anyone remain in denial of climate change?]

It's June 2008 and summer must be here, surely? Yet, here in the UK, I look out of my window at pouring rain and wonder…

SUMMER IS A MAN IN A BLUE DENIM SHIRT

In a field of sunflowers I met a man
wearing a blue denim shirt,
smelling of roses, singing a song
about love, joy and peace;
Laughing, he took me by the hand,
led me a dance as lightly
as a summer wind’s teasing leaves,
stroking a sparrow’s feathers,
running friendly fingers
through my hair, making me feel
so…alive

When I asked his name, he smiled
and burst into song again
without answering, lifting my heart
like the sparrow’s wing,
flirting with clouds at heaven’s door
as if daring someone to fling
it wide and protest at such blasphemy
as behaving so badly we even
whisper gossip at prayers
intended to give thanks for being
so…alive

A dark storm broke. We could but run
for the shelter and safety
of a nearby farmhouse painted green
but when I turned, that man
in the faded blue denim shirt was gone;
I searched long and hard
in pouring rain until soaked to the skin
before finally knocking at the door,
no sign of life so had to move on,
nearly … died

Come sun or storms, see summer pass,
its heart left waiting on love and peace

Copyright R. N. Taber 2008

[From: Accomplices  to Illusion by R. N. Taber, Assembly Books, 2007]