today
Outside my world children scream with unreasonable happiness and cry with abandon. The rolls have swelled to ten. Where were these children when I tried to raise a solitary child in this neighborhood? Once again I have been proven to be out of sync and in the right place at the wrong time. The sound of a circular saw overrides the sounds of the children. I hope it is not being used in the same yard. I do not trust adults enough to believe power tools and small children are a safe mix. When I was young a neighbor lost a small child because it crawled under a table saw just as the neighbor turned it on. The whole thing was kept very hush-hush in the neighborhood but I heard the whispers just the same. Because I was so small and quiet I could usually be privy to the conversations the adults thought they were hiding.
Once again, this post is about me. Although writing it and hearing the sounds outside my window did produce the following:
The cries, the screams, the smells,
Childhood on a hot dog bun.
July, the beautiful month,
With no fond memories of school.
July, the beautiful month,
With no fear of school to come.
Come scream in July.
Be the July smells of dirt and fireworks.
Roll in the hot dog bun of July.
Live in this eternal July--until
Until you finally know that, as inevitable as bedtime,
August will bring expectations and adulthood.
Once again, this post is about me. Although writing it and hearing the sounds outside my window did produce the following:
The cries, the screams, the smells,
Childhood on a hot dog bun.
July, the beautiful month,
With no fond memories of school.
July, the beautiful month,
With no fear of school to come.
Come scream in July.
Be the July smells of dirt and fireworks.
Roll in the hot dog bun of July.
Live in this eternal July--until
Until you finally know that, as inevitable as bedtime,
August will bring expectations and adulthood.