Summer Then

When we were young,
Summer lasted a lifetime
The sun did not shine ,
It burned on uncovered heads
Compelling us to seek the freshness
Of the ice-cold mountain stream


We, the timid ones first tasted
with our curling up toes
the temperature, screeching,
as the boys, sure in their manliness
launched themselves into the deep,
scattering us girls as corn in the wind

When we were young,
The days were lazy and long,
lying in the shade of drooping trees
frosted lemonade burning our tongues
living for nothing but this moment;
Past torture of algebra and geography
forgotten or safely under lock and key,
waiting for September to come,
when we would, sighing with regret
open our minds and dust them out

Today the summer turns over
and is gone before the smell of honeysuckle
has become a memory,
with autumn as the hungry wolf snapping
at her unprotected heels.
The sun still burns but we gasp,
thinking only of the next cooling rain cloud
begging for, yet fearing the sleepless night