A Simple Seasonal Villanelle

by Joseph McCombs

Summer's calling us upon a trip.
What better time? Autumn is a crisp season;
spring, a languid. Tunes from your lips

play upon my ear, and gently flip
a page in time. Soon we will be leaving.
Summer's calling us upon a trip.

It seems so strangely right to skinny-dip
into this lake. Bright birds of the season
spring a languid tune. From my lips

there comes a sound as soft as fingertips:
it whispers low, devoid of rhyme or reason,
"Summer calls us on." And so we trip

from field to field, from ship to sinking ship,
elated by our failures and our treasons.
Summer's calling us upon a trip --
Spring a languid tune from your lips.

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