Daniel

16

"___" O the Summer, how it shines! That blazing orb it owns, sitting on its heavenly throne, blasts its decrees toward us in its blinding voice. “Now rain! Now fog!” Pierce cloud and earthly smog with your golden bladed words! It raises trees and flowers like a mother suckling her babe with the gentlest care. It raises man as if we are the naughtier children. Yes, we frolic under our mother’s watchful presence, and yes, we weather her stormier moods. Our carelessness merits such burning reprimand! What a mother Summer is who slaps our hands from the heated flame of a stove with such equally burning measures!
"___" Her day-servant rests and her night-servant rises upon us like the father returning from his labor. From him we learn the double truth of our mother; its warmth and coolness are one in Summer. Like all present fathers, we children hide ourselves from his nightly judging gaze. He provides and we survive, yet anxiously await his labor to begin again.
"___" Summer is so fleet-footed fleeting; having saved its children from Winter’s grasp, it leaves for some far off place unearthly. And we cry at its absence! Our tears fall frozen to the frosty ground alone under our frigid keeper. Still, we huddle with our eyes to the skies overhead, waiting for our Summer-san to return again.