An Elegy

In one moment on an evening like this
Summer is drawing to a close
In front of a greengrocer
Holding out a vegetable
The woman’s young upper arm
In front of the take-away food shop
Counting her change
Her sad profile
Everything bathed in the light
Has quietly
Been drawn into the past
The leaves high on the tree just sway green
What is that power
Why doesn’t it stop the summer?
Abandoned in the grasses
Between the wheels of the bicycle grass begins to grow
To my bared arm
I press
My lips
Bitter
Terribly bitter

AN ELEGY