Modern Age * Summer 2017 Winter in July David Middleton Outside at dusk I see the dragonflies Like bi-winged Great War airplanes banked away To dive at quick mosquitoes lizards missed With tongues flicking in noontide's baking blaze. Soon night is regnant, tangled with her suns, As I rock on a porch that slowly cools And sip chill beer, watching pert mockingbirds Dance-fighting on the lawn's high muggy grass. Still basking in retirement's early days Like afterglows of sex or good deep sleep I mark the constellations, set adrift, And think once more on first and final things, The war dance of the darkness and the light Enacted in the heavens and this yard When crickets raise their mating cries and die And Draco's winter glintings ice the stars. 68 modernagejournal.comhttp://www.modernagejournal.com