Poetry Pause: Summer Solstice by Donna Kane

Happy Summer Solstice (one day late) to all of my friends in the northern hemisphere.

Summer Solstice, by Donna Kane

The light stretched and tangy, up on its horse
and riding through the ripening meadows,
buzzing the leaves and the birds who’ve been at it for hours.
Light that in its excess has become something else.
The way Cranberry Falls is so frothed with runoff
it doesn’t look like water anymore. The way you look
from a hill’s highest point, your head full of chlorophyll,
heart shucking winter like a clayload of guilt,
like pollen with its open fire policy
compensating loss. You exceed yourself,
tanked on the light and the birds
who’ve been singing forever.