Summer
Summer is freckles on shoulders, skin gone tougher like day-weathered leather tanned by hours spent living. / Summer is hair gone lighter, winter moods lifted like a weight off the mind / time scorching into the memory and chugged from a water bottle / the croak and chirp and hum of beetle wings on the air / the feel of grass under the feet and a different kind of head chatter. // Summer is disparate friendships / seeds blown across fields and planting elsewhere / the taste of someone else’s ice lolly / lips gone red temporarily forgiven the taboo / because summer is for loving. // Summer is escaping somewhere else to go watch the fireworks / muggy nights and frizzing curly hair and shirts tied around the midriff like mothers wouldn’t allow / wondering about adulthood when all you know is now / books stacked in windows and the scent of lignin in the sunlight. // Summer is late nights and long mornings / dreaming like you won’t wake up / time for coffee and the lazy ennui of sun / grasping after a sense of forever.
