Here are my first Dahlias mixed in with some feathery asparagus greens and a volunteer cardinal flower vine contrasted by the rough feeling of my escarpment vase. I replaced my garden fence this year and the white hydrangea is flourishing, as are my favorite daylilies. Don’t tell the deer, but they are thriving on this summer’s eve.

Summer’s Eve

For ES

Here are the pink hydrangeas,
In the neighbor’s garden.

All spring we’d seen only
White ones, & irises, beyond
The picket fence. Now, on summer’s eve, as
Tiger lilies come: this new thing.
Just like you asked for.

—Justin Belote, published in Afternoon Visitor, Issue 10