A Summer Lament

Summer
like flowers fades
Days shorten
Time ebbs
Like the retreat of the tide
Memories are snatched 
with velocity
Desperate to eek out
Final afternoons
Impromptu walks
coffees drunk
In favourite cafes
With favourite friends
Wild swimming at any opportunity
Big skies
Open spaces 
Dogs running free
The chance to be ourselves
Until…
We pack 
Our lives neatly
Like clothes in cases
To begin again
In ordered fashion
Of timetable and routine. 
Lamenting what was
Holding the memory
Of Summer.