Hidden From Us In Summer

by Diane Averill

When trees shed their leaves
we lose colors but see more
in black and white—
an owl framed by bare branches,
the creek hidden from us in summer,
travels of a squirrel.

When snakes shed old skin
they are blind for a while,
then their new bodies are brighter.

When tides come rushing in,
children lose their hard-won castles
yet, when waves go back out again

we love the gifts they leave of kelp and broken shells.
When a sand dollar breaks, it goes back to
the simpler form of eroded rock,

and when people shed their bodies
they leave behind pain
yet as they go they stay
in everything and everyone
they’ve touched.

From Hiding Inside the Light.

Two books by Diane Averill, Branches Doubled Over With Fruit, published by the University of Florida Press, and Beautiful Obstacles, published by Blue Light Press of Iowa, were finalists for the Oregon Book Award in Poetry.  Her chapbook, For All That Remains, published by Fir Tree Press, was listed under 150 Best Poets in Oregon. She has published in many anthologies and literary magazines such as “Beloved On This Earth,” “Bloomsbury Review,” “Carolina Quarterly,” “Clackamas Literary Review,” “Deer Drink the Moon,” “Midwest Quarterly” “Poetry Northwest,” “Tar River Poetry,”  and “Worlds for the Wild.” 

To purchase Hiding Inside the Light, email: dianelaverill@gmail.com.