Salvaging Summer’s End

For Marybeth and Nemo

Casino workers tend to reminisce.
The games are closed. But will the summer fly
and all this parkway hydroplaning cease?

Remember this: A kiss is but a kiss.
Suburban gardens melt into the sky.
Casino workers tend to reminisce.

I’m not surprised at all to learn that Cec-
il B. DeMille might turn a jaundiced eye
on all this parkway hydroplaning. Cease!

or is it Cut! he’d cry, the emphasis
on wrapping it and filing it on high?
Casino workers tend to reminisce

on briny white electric clouds that hiss
and lovers too cashed-out to say Good-bye!
Will all this parkway hydroplaning cease?

Unlikely, as the weather’s simply hit-or-miss
near Exit 38. Which tells us why
casino workers tend to reminisce
on parkway and the hydroplaning seas.