August Again
BY Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom
The stillest moment of the year
remains a jubilee,
where just outside the window
candy wagons,
muddy music, shards of crabshell
settle on the deck.
The ancient smell of grass remains,
and poems in scarlet
clusters, scattered by the shovelful.
For some other time.
Not June with its double entendres,
July with its virgin
coladas. There never was another
time. Your name now
instead of a starfish. Your turn
to say a thing
that's birthed in blood can't be
rendered in water.
Janelle Elyse Kihlstrom's chapbook, Blue Trajectory, was published by Dancing Girl Press in 2011. She edits the online journal Melusine and holds an M.A. in Writing from Johns Hopkins University. She lives with her small but recently expanded family in the D.C. area.