the last day
of august
the last day to pretend it’s
summer

to pretend the year is not
already
coming to a close

around the corner are
colorful leaves
a chilling breeze
ghosts and ghouls
and witches and spiderwebs
and werewolves howling at the moon
and anxiety-ridden queers
out of school for years
still worried about supplies
and straight A’s
and making good first impressions
and before we know it
the holidays will come with a tsunami of
tumult and emotions and plans that don’t all fit together
and then the long
long
looong span of time after new year’s
but before the spring brightens things [and moods] up again

last year, the winter was especially hard for me
it seemed to last
absolutely
forever

what will this coming wave bring?