A heavy rain in August eases the summer’s heated strain, giving hope for a forgiving Fall, until magic fills the winter sky and though still no change of color in even a single leaf, my reaction to the August rain is relief, while purple stars blaze or maybe I should say lavender, so many simple wonders amaze, I walk on the soft side in the shade. I see tracks of a deer, seedheads of Big Bluestem and Indiangrass appear, I sit by a ground squirrel and a Queen Anne’s lace curl,  I see hummingbirds hovering and trout rising in a lost lake I am rediscovering, it’s a time for ripening chokecherries and wild plum, when hungry bears will come, when blue flax is gone, gone to seed and goldenrod too will soon on its way proceed and finally I see another first frost, one week before September that brings to mind other first frosts I still remember.