LATE AFTERNOON, by Dottie Smith Mann
This is where I am in my life…
the late afternoon
so full of beauty it cracks my heart.
A sharply defined beauty
nothing fuzzy about it
three dimensioned
the up close and the far away clearly etched
seen by the light of a strong but waning sun.
The evening will come
Let evening come, the poet said.
Not yet though
Let me have the flickering shadows
the wind tossed trees
the soft blue skies
the brllliant sun almost at eye level.
Let me have the distant sounds of a small plane
the workmen down the lane almost done for the week.
Let me have the sun on teak tables and leather chairs
my husband resting upstairs
the shining maple floor
the reflected light on Aunt Anne’s bird sculpture
reminding me of a window on Eden Road looking out to sea.
Oh it cracks my heart and from that space
I feel a current come
A river of joy and love and gratitude
That I am here
in the late afternoon
before the night.
