End-of-August Misgivings of the Old Woman Jealous of the First Grader’s New School Shoes

 
the sign down 
  the road – do not pick
  blackberries – yellow jackets

our final peach pie
   pits and skins
   swarming with flies

a sketch of bird song
  in a failing tree
  broken fence railings

dry foxglove seed
  silent rocks
  in a shallow creek

above the pumpkins
  the elephant eye
  of unripe corn

the last blueberry
  mirror flash
  in sunlight

an earwig
  in my poetry box
  many dead feet

the summer night
 fan – blowing dreams
 to smithereens

wishes
 for more rose buds
 plucking blackspot leaves  

lessons 
  I have to learn
  don’t wait for next week

—
Tricia Knoll is a Vermont poet. Her work appears in dozens of journals nationally and internationally. As someone who taught school for some years, the end of August often seemed to come coupled with some regrets and memories of being the child headed back to school.