SUMMER SOLSTICE

The days stretch on and on yet somehow still fly on by. The moon waxes to illuminate what's left of the night. The cat becomes nocturnal. The light infiltrates my dreams.

Summer solstice solar charges June bones but this season there is a part of me that is still pining for the cradle of a winter eve. There is a part of me that is only just waking somehow; a luxury the bears do not know. Hunger wakes even the deepest dreamer.

And don't get me wrong, I am hungry. For salmon berries and the start of the salmon spawn, in a different way than the bears, sure. But still, the hunger calls. The hunger calls and I am too busy to answer. Can't shake this headache and there's a thousand things to do before I answer to my instincts.

But the way the light dances on the surface of the water; I watch it like a bad TV show, only without the shame. I want to toss every screen I'm shackled to into the river, but I don't want the river to take offence. Water isn't here to swallow these things away.

The Sun reflecting off the water asks, is answering every email on time really more important than this?

Song sparrows catch moths right in front of me and I applaud them with my smile. Mosquitos do not ask permission before taking my blood, but I give it freely. The early dusk wraps me in gold like silk over sunburnt shoulders. Pollen bites my eyes puffy and red. The beauty of a midsummer night is intoxicating.

And somewhere not so far off, I swear I can hear the sun laughing.