Summer cold

"Is there really a difference between a summer cold and a winter one?"
asked CJC, skeptical of my self-sympathetic adjective.

1996   click for print version

Winter's cold fits like a chapped rough hand
in a chilly mitten -
the discomfort is expected
but less than that surrounding

Summer's cold is a rude interloper
into the midst of warmth and gaiety

Winter's cold is the not entirely unwelcome excuse
to languish in bed
avoiding the gales which lash the window sill
with icy knives

Summer's cold gives no such compensation
for picnics missed
and evenings not in the garden
plucking spent blossoms

Winter's cold is life's reminder
of who's in charge,
lest we forget of weather
and whether we survive it

while summer's cold is a syncopated incongruity
out of time and out of breath
when every breath
should be a sip of summer