Monday, 29 August 2011

The Forked Tongue of a British August.

I’m cabined by discontent at the moment – not crushing, but close and clinging. I feel ill at ease physically, mentally and emotionally. I think a lot of it has to do with the inclement and changeable end we’re having to August.

I’ve disliked August all my adult life. I was thinking about it today, and decided that if April is the cruellest month, August is the most dishonest. It struts its summer status, while bearing on its breath the first chill winds of impending autumn. The trees are still replete with green leaves, but the sound of their shaking is no longer soft, but sibilant. The verges and field margins are noticeably thinning and becoming littered with the browning wreckage of summer’s once-vibrant colour. There is nothing summery about a British August, whatever the calendar says. August lies.

September, on the other hand, is usually just what it’s supposed to be. I like September.

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