Ted Kooser: "Porch Swing in September"

The porch swing hangs fixed in a morning sun
that bleaches its gray slats, its flowered cushion
whose flowers have faded, like those of summer,
and a small brown spider has hung out her web
on a line between porch post and chain
so that no one may swing without breaking it.
She is saying it's time that the swinging were done with,
time that the creaking and pinging and popping
that sang through the ceiling were past,
time now for the soft vibrations of moths,
the wasp tapping each board for an entrance,
the cool dewdrops to brush from her work
every morning, one world at a time.



"Porch Swing in September" by Ted Kooser, from Flying at Night: Poems 1965-1985. © University of Pittsburgh Press, 2005.

Art credit: "Painting No. 36: Porch Swing," oil on gessoboard, by Jessica Green (originally color).