This is my favorite time of day
late afternoon
not really day anymore
but not evening either.
July is a great month
for this time of day.
There is no humidity,
a slight breeze,
and the sun plays off the trees -
the way it does
that always makes me think of the Civil War.
Union soldiers putting down for the day,
fires being built,
and hard tack and salt pork
becoming a starving man's feast.
And then as the day slips
further and further away
the tobacco and stories come out.
Now, if I'm real quiet,
I can hear a fiddle, a banjo, and a mouth harp
and the melody "Lorena" drifts over the trees
like the twisting wisps of campfire smoke
giving comfort to all the ghosts
that were here
and now
like this day
are not.
©Lyle Fales 2009
