Shortest Night

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

545

Abstract

your hoody? Can I rest my goosebump-covered calves on your thighs and bury my bare toes in between your layers of clothes?Can we light the firepit and pretend the world is static; not spinning on her jaunty axis.Let June days go on and on and wake us with familiar birdsong; warmth, become predictable, reliable like the friend you walked to school with: every day the same.I know we’ll meet again, Summer and I and it’s not like we have to say goodbye right now. But once she sets tonight, t

Options

he sun won’t shine for quite as long tomorrow.I’ll be alright. I’ve weathered seasons, highs and lows. The pressure comes and goes but if the planet somehow heard me in the dark and let me have my way…if gravity succumbed to deep desires of the heartthe shortest night would stay and stay and stay.© Amy Knight 2022Written for a headline performance on 21st June 2022 (summer solstice) at the Buckingham Literary Festival, UK.</article></body>

A summer solstice poem

Photo taken from the top of Whiteleaf Hill in The Chilterns, UK

When the sun sinks, russet into thirsty land and the breeze turns, suddenly round the clock —

the Earth says; “That’s it folks! See you in December!”

— can I hold your hand?

Can I wear your hoody? Can I rest my goosebump-covered calves on your thighs and bury my bare toes in between your layers of clothes?

Can we light the firepit and pretend the world is static; not spinning on her jaunty axis.

Let June days go on and on and wake us with familiar birdsong; warmth, become predictable, reliable like the friend you walked to school with: every day the same.

I know we’ll meet again, Summer and I and it’s not like we have to say goodbye right now. But once she sets tonight, the sun won’t shine for quite as long tomorrow.

I’ll be alright. I’ve weathered seasons, highs and lows. The pressure comes and goes but if the planet somehow heard me in the dark and let me have my way…

if gravity succumbed to deep desires of the heart

the shortest night would stay and stay and stay.

Written for a headline performance on 21st June 2022 (summer solstice) at the Buckingham Literary Festival, UK.