Summer

They say that this is summer
That summer is full of change
I don't think that's true
Summer is just strange

Be it June, July, or August
Muggy, hot, or dry
I believe that summer
Is just a time to cry

I don't really think so
But rhyming is quite hard
Cry is the only thing I could think of
That fits into this little yard

This isn't making any sense
So I will leave you now
I can blame it on Korea
And the newness that is approaching me. WOW!!!

But It's a Dry Heat...

This time of year

the desert blisters the unwary.

 

I watch people crawl into their shells

slither backward into dark basements 

the cool crevices of their protective havens

and wait for September, resigned.  

Spending summer months 

behind concrete walls and central air

is like self-imposed house arrest.

Like cabin fever in reverse

Minnesota in negative twenty degrees

except 

when in the desert, you step outside

and feel EVERYTHING...

Every.  Thing.

Every molecule of arid sun

every wavering doubt 

every shimmering illusion of grandeur

bleaches you, inside out.

There are only so many

clothes to take off

until you are stripped bare and left

over the fiery coal-bed of melting pavement.

There is no wind chill to numb

your insecurities away.

And so, the withdrawal

the cautious retreat

to the shadows, the hidden familiar.

I don't want to exist in an emotionless desert.

I don't want to slip back

into the mind's dark basement

and forget the warmth of

the human condition.

I don't want to construct walls--

psychological or otherwise--

or succumb to the fear of heat stroke. 

I will step out

wear sunscreen

breathe deep in the dry heat

and embrace the day.   

Wishful Wednesday (on a Sunday)

Active hands
Mean
Active minds
Active minds
Mean
Thoughtful souls
Which
In turn
Mean
The future
Is looking
brighter and brighter
by the
Minute.

(You have to see the picture I have this captioned by to have it make sense, but it's a group of my six-year-olds at the Children's Museum in South Carolina looking out of the window on a sunny South Carolina summer day while drawing on it with erasable window markers. Very cool. At least I felt inspired enough to jot down some notes when looking at the photo again.)

Maybe at some point we can have a photo theme on the blog too...just sayin'.