Rainless Southwest Summers

Long, dark Ohio winter nights
gave way to sunlit days.
Frosty Dakota evenings passed,
now t-shirt wearing time.
Flowers bloom in Georgia
within the lowland haze.
New England churches freshly painted
from doors to bell tower climb.

Snowmelt is finally finished
as rivers fast and wide
released their fearful pressure,
and small northern towns rejoice.
Greenhouse shoots became
growing plants outside,
while Midwest farmers prayed for rain
with fervent, married voice.

Eastern cities are primed  

for what will be
until September calls, as
the awakening unfolds.
Visitors arriving on
their pilgrimage to see
long desired objects,
tourist tales waiting to be told.

The northwest has a too-fleet
visit from the heat,
and even that is tempered by
summer winds and rain,
but most are glad to be
without the snow and sleet
of winter, and welcome back
the season’s expats, yet again.

In the southwest the summer is
viewed more with a touch of worry,
as Snowbirds leave their second homes,
some east or northwest bound.
Winter’s days of sun and warmth
yield a different story than
in the nation’s other reaches,
where summer does not wound.


Southwest falls and winters,
and most clearly, spring,
are the reasons people visit,
and why many choose to stay.
but those remaining after March
know this one true thing,
that for this beauty, summer’s
heat is our yearly price to pay.

It’s not the small reminders,
like the early heat of May.
With nights still cool, it still
allows a dance or two, a song.
It’s that we know
spring’s rapid days
too soon are summer’s,
too often, too hot, too long.