a bittersweet plum

the transition
of
summer to autumn...
august to september
always has
a
certain
bittersweet taste.

it is when
school starts
and
the students return.
the summers
on campus
are quiet,
empty,
and have
a slow
quality
about them.
it's a time
to focus inward.
it is when
the backbone
of the campus-
grad students,
professors,
staff-
get most
of their
own work done.

then,
with what seems
like overnight,
the campus fills
like an
overstuffed pillow.

my walk from
the metro to campus
once filled with
the chik chik
of sprinklers
and
the hum
of dog-day cicadas
is now
a mash of
one
blasting radio
to the next.
sidewalks,
once empty,
are now
swarming
like a
beehive
opened
just before
a storm-
disorganized,
rushed,
disarrayed.

girls
in short short
shorts
and
tiny tight
dresses
that i never
had the guts
to wear
when i was
twenty.

this all
punctuates
the transition
of
summer
to fall.

like
autumn
written in
boldface type.

like the tartness
of the skin
of my favorite plum
that appears
at the market
this time
of year.

so so sweet
inside
with
a faint
bitterness.
a tang
left by
the summer skin.



looking to autumn.
xo