Capes, cap guns, bandanas and band-aids, ankle scrapes and stubbed toes, peroxide, bactine. Relief in cool kitchens whose sweet fatty guts we mix into cookies to bake, to sell, to eat, moms and daddies late to purchase and the pickins slim. Our bellies sit full. Apples, snap-peas, raspberries, currants; spiders in a jar, earwigs in the branches. A swing-set over-swung, another monkeyed in a game, a third holding mouths making maps in its treehouse. Airplanes, sailors, hunters, hunts. The bright outdoor pool and its unheated sweetness, the blonde boy underwater at elastics, grinning. Fair rides folded and dark on tractor beds, then generators buzz power cords fling wheels up to wheel, lights into lit, endless tinny music squatting ear pockets, tempting. Flirting, kissing, hands held, hips. Prizes overstuffed, a tiger in a cage, a set of whirling swings at the cow field’s edge and high, spinning baskets with trapped, screaming throats. Water from the hose. Mealtimes sped. Chalk in the street, names called through yards, the fields, other yards. Come out! Come home! Baseballs, softballs, rubber balls, soccer. Cowboys with jangle spurs and pretty fringed chaps, flaks and helmets and dented hats, queens in sashes and curls and teeth upon steeds against sunsets, galloping. Out with the bulls is a clown in his barrel. Corndogs, corn cob, kettle corn, curly fries, funnel cakes, snow cones, tacos, sausage, burgers, potato chips, chicken salad, watermelon, cherries. Stains. Paper plates puckered, varied pink juices, vinegary pools. Tie-dye, bare feet, vendor tents, onions, farmers to market, riverfront fountains, sunburns and sunglass and suntan lotion and sun setting late, later, latest. Plane rides and car rides and hitch-thumbs and bikes. Tents, rafts, poles, hooks, sleeping bags, bean cans, percolators, briquettes. Stars. The moon’s bleach. Suits, boutonnières, bouquets, PAs, buffets, name cards, cut cakes, toasts: Dear summer, I really like you, you’re hot, let’s go out, I know you leave soon, I won’t forget you, see you next year, stay sweet.
Sarah is currently serving as resident “coolest writer chick we’ve ever met” and her latest project can be found at NowPortraits.
