Julia

16

"How To Define A Summer’s Day"

Maybe a summer’s day is like a Klondike bar
That drips white on splintered, decalescent docks
How she ran into the shaded portions of the wood
When she would forget to wear flip-flops

Maybe a summer’s day is defined by length
The longer days and shorter nights
How she would have an excuse to stay out late
Because, she would argue, there was safety in the light

Maybe a summer’s day is captured in sunscreen
The pout across a child’s face as it’s applied
How she would lie and say she had covered herself with it
And how I would have to lightly hold her crimson shoulders as she cried

Maybe a summer’s day is described best by clichés
Like the “feeling of sand between your toes”
But she made me think that maybe a “sandwich” got its name
When she would complain about the sand on her tomatoes

Maybe a summer’s day isn’t always pleasant
Like how she would always have a shorts tan
Or how beads of sweat would roll into the crevices of her eyelids
And make her black hair stick to her back

Maybe a summer’s day comes at the end
When you prepare for your first day of school
As she would lay out her uniform on the loveseat
And stare longingly at the pool

Maybe a summer’s day is beautiful
Because it always comes again
Because the earth may turn and the seasons change
But the cycle will always remain the same

Maybe a summer’s day makes me feel
As if she still would run and play
As if those memories repeat themselves
Maybe that’s what I think of when I define a summer’s day

Maybe a summer’s day reminds me of the definites
She may definitely be gone
And I will never move on
But a summer’s day is infinite.