"June in the Suburbs"

I heard a poem in a podcast but it doesn't seem to be anywhere online - nowhere. I took a chance and ordered a collection of the poet's work from another library, and bingo!

June in the Suburbs

Not with a whimper but a roar

Of birth and bloom this month commences.

The wren's a gossip at her door.

Roses explode along the fences.

By day the chattering mowers cope

With grass decreed a final winner.

Darkness delays. The skipping rope

Twirls in the driveway after dinner.

Through lupine-lighted borders now

For winter bones Dalmatians forage.

Costly, the spray on apple bough.

The canvas chair comes out of storage;

And rose-red golfers dream of par,

And class-bound children loathe their labors,

While pilgrims, touring gardens, are

Cold to petunias of their neighbors.

Now from damp loafers nightly spills

The sand. Brides lodge their list with Plummer.

And cooks devise on charcoal grills

The first burnt offerings of summer.

- by Phyllis McGinley