Walk Good

If you had asked me I’d
have said that when
the time had come for me
to say au revoir
officially by then
it would be warm
and we would be outside
in shorts and T’s.

But it ain’t so.
Of course each year there are
the usual
determined souls who brave
dawdling cool
no mind wind striding up
from off the lake
biting their lips pinching

their pimply arms.

Lounge lizards on the block
(they’re really creeps
who hit on chicks in bars
I know
but that’s not fair
to harmless reptiles and
the sweet pastime

of idling hours away
so I declared
them something else) have gone
back in although
laundry on lines
still purposeful
deliberately soaking up
the atmosphere for all its worth.

All this is well:
that expectation should
not meet event
defiance find a place
chameleons
emerged too early for
the colour change
wriggle back under stones

poets invoke prerogative
undoing Adam’s task
and simple rituals
affirm what’s time-
less. It is green and still
noise comes in through
the open casement. So
summer will come.

Till then, walk good.

The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.