Summertime Riff

It's mid-September and the noisy cicadas have gone but the crickets continue to natter. It's mid-September and still the heat of extended summer makes for sweltering nights. It's mid-September but it feels like the dog days persist, heat advisories and all.



Summertime Riff


The jazz of crickets
lulls me to sleep on sticky
August nights. Like the steady
thrum of a Bourbon Street beat
it floats through my wide-flung window
long past "Last call."

When the sultry sun rises
I wake to these jam sessions
finally winding down
as one by one the players pack it in,
amused by the ants already hustling
at first light.



Marilyn Aschoff Mellor