Immergrun, Loretto

On light feet squirrels stow chocolate brown acorns
To and from the black oak’s darkening
In the diaphanous shadows at wood’s edge.

Doubling to the light in the forest
Sullen cicadas rumble
From cool shades of leaf and light
Beyond the expanse of the broad sycamore
Whose fingered grip is luminous
Soaked in yellow.
Solar heat gathers sweet perfume---
Powdered earth late in the day.
Scent of mock orange wafts across the border
The clank of the penitentiary fades
Like blue Summer’s dragonfly retreat.

Purple songbirds dart about at the edge
Where the goldenrod blends
Into blue aster stars and orange waterlillies.
Black crows hang over beige fields
As the sun dips her head into the Alleghenies
Abandoning the day to fireflies and cool evening crickets.