Summer Solstice Cinquain

Opens
early to light
to spread it out longer
than any other—bleeding to
the night.

First Monday in Summer

I drink hot
coffee in the rising
heat to cool
off. It works
the way no liquid could
when I was

drunk. When I would use

any day of the week
during any season
as an excuse. But nothing
can stop me
from memorizing
the long light of now.

These are
elastic skies
that won’t snap into night
before it’s time to pause under
the cusp.