seasons – all the voices in my head

Fall jammed its foot
in our weather's door
today. Summer will
make peace with it
three days from now,
but we'll all be uneasy.
Perhaps Summer might
assert itself? Take over
October's start? Push
those eighties at us?
"Eighty is the new Ninety."
But Fall's persistent.
It knows its time has
come. One, two weeks,
no big deal. It can wait.
Regardless, trees will
shower leaves now, birds
will pack their bags, our
storms will turn cold.

How can sixty-some feel balmy,
nice, when Spring reminds
Winter it's time to leave? How?
Remember that while you're
resurfacing sweaters, wool,
long sleeves, rain gear, while
readying fireplaces, heaters,
thermostat settings, while
finding those recipes for
soup, stew, hearty breads.
While dreaming about when
these temps will be welcome.

And they prayed to the gods who
brought the cool water, the wetness
which didn't burn. They defied mother's
warnings to stay away from water,
to stay indoors, to stay safe.

It never rains in California, or
snows in Seattle, except when
it does. My father rails yet from
his grave against the wetness of
"the coast." Everyone, everywhere
loves where they live "because it
has all four seasons" but disregard
none would agree what those seasons
should look like or if they exist(ed)
at all. Kids play baseball in snow,
football during extreme heat
warnings. My childhood home 
fills with smoke every time I
visit—never during my childhood.
My front yard struggles to under-
stand why rain drowned months 
of drought yet six weeks later, they 
thirsted again. We think ourselves smart
with only vague notions of 
weather's history, its background, its
vagaries, its fickle obstinacy
toward being pinned down.
Strip "climate change" of its
political charge, what's left? 
Surety. Things have changed...but...
did this wheel always spin? Did we
merely boost it? Ask my grandparents
during the Dust Bowl. Ask my great-
grandparents during winters when 
my grandparents greeted our world.
Ask me. This feels different. This
feels "not normal." This smacks of
Apocalyptic Event (movie to follow).

68/100
100 poems in 100 days