When Summer Belonged To Us

Unidentified Photographer, [Two unidentified girls, one eating watermelon, the other disrobing], ca. 1960 (2012.24.1) from Fans in a Flashbulb

When summer belonged to us,

we shot out of school doors like pinballs

pinging off trees, porches, each other,

racing toward imagined jackpots

We lay in the heat,

hair and freckles bleached with lemon juice

and tasted the tang on our skin

We shucked Silver Queen on front steps,

the silk sticking to our fingers

and stealing nibbles off the cobs

We grabbed thick slices of watermelon,

ate them down to the rind,

sweet juice dripping down our wrists,

then spitting the seeds

across crabapple dappled lawns

We set the pace of our days

to suit our moods

and lingered under street lights

well past dusk

Feigning deafness to the calls of parents,

we schemed our next scheme

There was always another tomorrow

when summer belonged to us.

submitted for Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, Elephants Dance In Fancy Pants-Get Listed

Summer Girls

source

Do you remember when summer was summer?

Crazy with June we ran

Sticky fingers syrupy with popsicle drips

And tongues stained in shades of fake fruits

Daisy chain days

Crabapple happy

Hands clapping to silly sing-song rhymes

Trees climbed high to find

The perfect perch for our bird light bodies

Rainy days

Dancing in the drops that hit the hot street

And vanished with a sizzle

Shady days

Lying in the warm grass laughing

Daydreaming of the boys we loved

And loving the girls we were

When summer was summer.

submitted for Poetry Pantry 136 at Poets United

 

Summer Song

source

 Through lazy afternoons the summers pass

I walk barefooted through the new mowed grass

Grasshoppers gambol underneath my feet

As August moves to its unhurried beat

A hummingbird sips nectar from a flower

Hypnotized, I lose track of the hour

The scent of honeysuckle fills the air

Its sweetness nips my tongue and lingers there

The silken wings of butterflies alight

On fragrant flowers colorful and bright

Once the pace slows down I hear the hush

The summer's torpid tempo can't be rushed

Again I learn that here is the sublime

In this moment, living all the time.

submitted for dVerse Poets Pub, Form For All, Clarian Sonnets

                         

Love Song of the Sea

image source

The summer sun sets our bodies to glisten

Sounds of the waves make us stop and listen

Of love and lust the sea whispers discreetly

Lovers can hear it and obey completely

The warm water washes away our past sin

Like Venus we're birthed from the sea to begin

And so like her subjects obey her command

Embrace and make love in the soft ocean sand

submitted for Poetry Jam, Summer Chillin'
and Thursday Think Tank, The Beach/Ocean, at Poets United
and for Thursday Poets Rally, Week 46

Thanks, Jingle and Poets Rally!
I nominate K. Shawn Edgar for the Perfect Poet Award

Shades of Summer Red

photo courtesy of Poetry Jam

Fizzy cold Cherry Splash soda

if we are really lucky or

Sugary sweet red Kool Aid

bright enough to stain our lips

if it's for us

Watered down to a paler vintage
to sell for 3 cents a Dixie Cup
from the Radio Flyer wagon

Come evening the booty is exchanged 
for cherry popsicles 
from the Good Humor man

We never have the patience to save up

for the Strawberry Shortcake bars 
we really covet

Skinned knees and scraped elbows

from falling off our bikes

or from playing maul ball 
with the older kids

On occasion, a loose tooth knocked clean out

leaving a bloody hole and bragging rights

The stench of rotting crab apples

squishing under bare feet 

running across the lawn

through the sprinklers

watering  the fire red azaleas

and the bricks on the house fronts

Someone's mom pokes out her head and calls

we scatter

Like gnats being shooed away

Until we gather again

submitted for Poetry Jam

One Shot Wednesday, Week 49,  at One Stop Poetry

Poetry Pantry 52 at Poets United