summons

if you have eyes only to see it

if things added up or went away

if music grew on leaves as if in summer

then summer leaves itself revealing autumn

the bonfires are gone

the vine slack

the line taut disappearing in the murk

the fly buzzing in and out of speakers

paspalum and clothes pegs

the families walk away from the shore

little purple towel hanging on the wire

sunday evening mauves in

the machinery halted in mid dig

new improved hotels half empty

clouds gather round the point of evening

thankful for darkening shadows

we have disappeared into history now

we enter the past via the present

soon time moves apart for us swallows us

it opens up we move forward into some time ago

existing only memory sticks to the sides

you were alone when you came in here

your face hidden in planes of grey

the solid cables groan underwater mooring us all to the floor

hardly anyone about in the dells downtown

in the groves of building and the glades of car

in the schools of helicopters swimming through sky

shall we depart then?

shall we make such preparations and plans?

and all the time the soft mouth and nightbelly

and the discarded shallow pleasure of river

rushing back up

into the mountainous height