Summer is offering a bonus month, honeycrisp breeze, sunburn on hold. I love you, fake summer, more than the real, just another instance of changing color. Stepping out barefoot, I breathe in apple scent and count the days, fingering faux pearls. Take this vow for what it’s worth: I’m all yours. Autumn, marry me!
Poem by Marion Brown
Marion Brown, who lives in Yonkers, NY, holds a B.A. from Mount Holyoke College and an M.A. and Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University. Finishing Line Press published her two chapbooks, Tasted and The Morning After Summer. Her poem “In the Dock, Fagin Reflects” won First Prize in the inaugural Portico Poetry Competition. Her poems have appeared in Guesthouse, the Women’s Review of Books, Kestrel, The Night Heron Barks, and DIAGRAM. She serves on the Advisory Committee of Slapering Hol Press and the National Council of Graywolf Press.