A Hot Kent Day

To remember it now is like recalling
a dream of a story I read as a child
A cornflower blue sky
fields ripe with harvest
crops wilting in the sun
A slow river, reeds listless

It was too hot to speak
so we found a boat, rowed downstream
Trailed our fingertips overboard
Just you and me, languishing
Our minds far away

We passed a great oak, coveted her shade
Wordlessly we moored, clambered ashore
Felt the cool mud of the bank between our toes
and with every step, I awoke

hundreds of butterflies
all burnt oranges and burnished golds
We stopped, watched clouds of them descend

upon our open palms, our bare feet
Settling like confetti, their wings blinking
And with this fanfare, the sleeping world
came alive

A Hot Kent Day

Earthworms wriggled
beetles caught the light like jewels
dragonflies skittered at the water’s edge
Every leaf, every blade of grass, dancing
The hum of the country like I hadn’t heard in years

The butterflies followed us to the shade of the oak
played in the dappled light
covered your face in kisses
We tried to stay quite still
but our bodies could not resist
being so alive