Summer Night Poem by Jaime Montanez Salcedo

Flurries of birds the horizon pierce,
Etching in black on setting crimson fierce,
And in the serenity of the dale
Is heard the serenading nightingale,
Exciting wonder with his lovely songs,
Uttering love to whom his heart belongs,
Amorous promises in the windless air,
As yet, ardent love can arouse despair.
In such twilight begins a fairy-tale:
The crickets with loving passion regale,
In the safeguard of shadowy bowers
Vowing his ardent love for endless hours.
Then, the allaying sounds surrender to roar
Of seemingly drums, the cicadas implore
For urgent love, among the foliage,
And for their yearning, be time to assuage.
And soon the heavens turn into darkness,
So stars lighten the encircling vastness,
Like mantle embroidered with diamonds
To cover all beauty that nature bonds.
The time came for the languorous dog's howl,
Echoed by hoot of awakened owl,
A myriad of euphoristic sounds,
Starts a nightly symphony that rebounds,
To entice the moon to rise from distant lair,
So fantastic festivity would share.
The fireflies in enjoyment waylay,
Dashingly the darkness with their display,
Seemingly radiant mischievous sprites,
Who here and there, the air ignites.
Fancy led, fitful winds playful apace,
In their wild unrest unveil the moon's face,
Imbued with crystalline and mystic shine,
Which overlays with light the gadding vine,
While spreads seeming mercurial veil of light
Upon the pond, dwelling of such delight.
There, midst the water lilies and bulrush,
The scintillant eyes aroused in such lush,
Of frog that serenades through all the night,
The dormant waters faintly stirred bright,
By a breeze light touch, alike lover's kiss
Awakes from deep sleep to glorious bliss.
Though unseen, marvelous images quietly lie,
Secret, vagrant ghosts to the searching eye,
Cloistered within the drowsy lids of night
And tenuous mist would begin to alight.
Then, for joyful hours the night does condone
With such wild carousal, starts to atone;
The whispering ceases before dawn looms,
And begins to dew the marsh mallow blooms,
The buds of flowers quick to effloresce,
And the brilliant stars aim to evanesce.
A luminous, rosy light waxes above,
Aroused by the rooster's greet of love,
So the day in azure garb, sated with pride,
Lay to sleep the night, his eternal bride.