Summer Childhood

I blink and summer has changed.

The sun lit mornings used to be

apple pancakes made by dad,

reading books in the grass,

swimming around in the pool.

Days meant giving the dog a bath

or having friends over to

cook smores over the fire in the backyard

or camp out in the 2 person tent,

running inside once it got too hot

or the thunder shook the tent.

Evenings were a family piled into a van

pajamas on, no shoes in sight,

driving to the local ice cream shop

to munch on cones and get yelled at

for dripping soft serve in the car.

Sometimes I wish everything could go back

to when it was simple. When boys had cooties

and there was no such thing as an income

or taxes. Summer meant the dread of going

back to school, not the excitement that work

was over. I want to take off my shoes,

run around the backyard and not have a care

because the world was mine.