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© 2013 Sneha Madhavan-Reese Sneha Madhavan-Reese lives with her family in Ottawa. Her poetry has appeared in Arc, FreeFall, and The Prairie Journal and is forthcoming in The Antigonish Review and Descant. Her manuscript Observing the Moon was a finalist for the 2013 Alfred G. Bailey prize. Please visit www.madhavan-reese.com/sneha "This Summer" was first published in The Huron River Review, Issue 6 (2007).

This Summer

Without you, the grass lies unmowed
and has grown past my knees.

I tried to clear dead branches
from trees in the back, but
the scratches on my arms exploded
into itchy, pink bumps.

Seeing flats of annuals
outside the hardware store, I imagine
neat rows of petunias, alternating
purple and white by the side of the house,
or a wild garden in the open sun
of rudbeckia, bee balm, butterfly weed…

But it is too late now
for planting. The summer has come
with its oppressive heat.

 

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