Longer Than Any Indian Summer Poem by Mark Heathcote

The frozen ground is all around me.
I want spring to come soon.
And show me who I am.

When flowering tongues festoon
Grow and cover me above.
Intern me even as I go, below.

I want to feel the wind's warmth.
When rain falls in the summer
And the tarmac shimmers.

This is how I'll know, and I'll also
Live forever with hope.
In a dream that goes on forever.

The heart beats as heavy as a skein.
Of geese looking for hemispheres
Beyond what we all call our sun.

And when this melting's begun
I'll pray the summer is a good one.
Longer than any other summer.

Longer than all the stars numbered
We counted together, next -one another.
And longer than an Indian summer.