One More Year to Remember©

Dan Lukiv
M.Ed., English and Creative Writing
McNaughton Centre, Quesnel, BC, Canada
E-mail: lukivdan@shaw.ca

chapter 8

august 1

her skis point upwards
behind the snorting blue boat--
she won’t say “go!”

august 2

poet in a lawn chair,
sleeping, pen in hand,
mouth open

august 3

pink clouds in the east--
a freighter heads towards the
setting sun

august 4

in hot wind,
poplars sweep the
blue sky

august 5

peonies,
their fragrance--
mom

august 6

excitedly i
pluck one of our onions--
worms stick out

august 7

as rain pours down, the
fast mustang hydroplanes and
heads into the trees

august 8

poet in a lawn chair:
his pen lies in tall grass
as he still sleeps

august 9

i’m cleaning the shed--
old toys of children moved on.
i stop, catch my breath

august 11
 
a v-flock of cranes
against the white slopes of
mount hermon

august 10

in the valley lake,
ducks between knives of silver
don't see us watching

august 11

the bend of the tree
above the empty lawn chair
is a squirrel's trail

august 12
                   
a girl in the park
cries: gulls nearby eat garbage
and ignore her

august 13

"they're safe," one aunt says,
but the boy only watches
them eat those mushrooms

august 14

horseflies
on horse-dung

august 15

as the rain falls,
still the wet old woman
calls her cat

august 16

a fallen pine has
diverted the sparkling stream
from a beaver dam

august 17

this cold summer night:
horses exhale mist, and snort--
wingless dragons

august 18

poet in a lawn chair--
a niece looks closely and asks,
“mummy, has he died?”

august 19

a rain-soaked dog
lying in a dry porch,
sleeping

august 20

distant rain-streaks,
dark, falling in cold wind,
travelling west

august 21

rain
fills the forest
with sound

august 22

in the green valley,
the morning smell of
pulp mills

august 23

thirteen goslings                                   
follow their mother
across the swamp

august 24

a duck approaches,
studies me, waits, bites my shoe,
rushes away

august 25

again fog
on the cold river--
a bird chirps

august 26

dimitar* says dan-
delions “grow the same” on
each side of the fence.                               

 *dimitar anakiev, a yugoslavian-born poet

august 27

in the forest
dark trees in midnight wind
sing

august 28

at sunset--
salmon-clouds with
red bellies

august 29

bull rushes
in river slime--
a cold day

august 30

i draw in
the river’s smell--
mud in my lungs

august 31

a house on a hill,
facing the slow river--
abandoned

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