Are you okay?

Driving home Sunday,
Oxfordshire evening sunshine 
burnishing spires and flaming
rape fields too bright to look at.
Mulling over the day and
you asking me if I’m okay
more than once
due to my uncharacteristic silence,
my brief absent-minded answers
‘Of course’.
It’s like coming up for air whilst swimming
only to dive straight back beneath
the reminiscing waves, to
warm end-of-summer stroked thoughts
of the little ones careering busily
over garden obstacles,
their parents chatting over wine
and obstacles to busy careers,
‘Are you okay’
‘Of course’.
Summer’s lease coming to a close.

*

© Graham Sherwood 09/2019