August
The plant next to the path
Grows tall and green and luscious
Standing there in all its liveness
As I pass by and admire it day after day
One day in August I see it gave way to the heat
And its leaves are rumpled and turned down
And then, more days on, along the bottom
its leaves begin to burn and brown
And I wonder if that’s how we went
If someone walked along the path
in our August and noticed or if
one day it was winter and we were gone