Dying Summer

Meghan Bennett

Summer dies as it always dies: begging for it,  

sweat-drenched and tired, a little angry— 

but understanding if you have better things to do. 

So summer swells like a bloating corpse  

in a drained swimming pool, 

but at least the music is damn good—  

a proper camp horror flick  

with a stellar soundtrack, lots of nostalgia 

to really bank on the it’s happy and poppy but 

it’s all written in blood vibe of the sixties. 

What’s that saying? “If you can remember the sixties, 

you weren’t really there.” 

So it matters what we choose to pretend to forget.  

 

You go outside on the front drive in the evenings 

to watch Orion peek over the horizon, suspicious, 

the satellites full of civilians hurtling through  

the ribs of Greek gods and their underfed mutant pets.  

Autumn feels like an impossibility,  

but every death must have its grief cycle  

so you go inside and lie shirtless on the hardwood floor 

and hold your own wake. Next time you blink 

there’ll be skeletons and tinsel and stale candy hearts 

and then you’ll blink again and look, resurrection. 

And the music is still excellent.  

And the sun is still red and bleeding  

again, again, again.