Dog Days

Nicknamed the Dog Star, Sirius’ prominence in early July daybreak skies ushers in the Dog Days of summer. Throughout history folklore ascribes all manner of good and ill fortunes to said moniker. Befitting the latter, this year our neck of the woods still endures heat, drought and torrential thunderstorms. Sultry days and nights slow the pace of life. Hope banks on memories of crisp fall airs to take the edge off the misery. At wits’ end, humanity makes submissive overtures to Orion the mythological hunter and asks he leash his wretched hound.

Dog Star ablaze sways tales of antiquity,

Wherein Orions’s storied hound bodes misery.

Hot, humid days slow life and minds befog,

Until crisp autumn airs leash wretched dog.

© Ilija Lukić 2019

Dog Day Afternoon
(Haw River near Bynum, North Carolina USA)

Lincoln's Night On The Town

A mural of Honest Abe cruising in a vintage 1937 Lincoln Zephyr Coupe adds a lighthearted touch to the west-facing, exterior brick wall of the Lincoln Theatre in downtown Raleigh NC. A movie house for black Americans in the 1940s, the theater closed its doors to movie goers in 1975. After years of neglect with several temporary occupancies followed by renovations, the Lincoln Theatre reopened as a well-known Raleigh music venue in the early 2000s.

© Ilija Lukić 2019

Lincoln's Night On The Town
(Lincoln Theater Mural, Raleigh North Carolina)

Summer's Mellow Ale

Come, let’s drink deeply of summer’s mellow ale,

Brewed of earth, sun and timely rain showers

And ere long realize how human artworks pale,

When compared to the perfect smiles of flowers.

© Ilija Lukić 2019

Summer's Mellow Ale
(Black-Eyed Susans at Old Bynum, North Carolina General Store)