As summer’s end
invites in the cool night air
and a perceptible shift
in the sun’s light,
my time
for swimming in the warmth and buoyancy
of the Long Island Sound
is waning.
That always near,
yet almost unconscious
ache and stiffness
that is my body
being transformed,
by movement
through water and salt,
into the feeling of silken muscle,
will once again
become a memory
and a desire.
A desire deepening
into moments of longing
as I delight in walking
into the relief of more refreshing temperatures
and the softer embrace of the sun’s gentle golden light
dappling
throughout the fading green,
maroon-red, rusting-yellow and cinnamon-brown tapestry
that is the forest in fall.