It is 8:30
and will not be dark for at least an hour
Today I plucked healthy basil leaves
off the stem for pesto
and pulled pits from the cherries I harvested
yesterday afternoon
This is the housewifely season
of preserving summer’s bounty
for winter nourishment
and so I will descend
book and tea in hand
sleeveless and sweaty
to gather the bumper crop of daylight hours
this zucchini of sunlight
that I’m tempted to toss on the compost as excess
but instead will store up,
bottle it in my mind and body
so I can savour it in the
hungry days of winter
when the sun falls, spent