Saturday, July 13, 2013

It is not a season


It is not a season but a memory,
or nest of memories, of day camp
and Bible school, hot sand on hot beaches,
sunburns, snowball stands, and sloshing
hot coffee or cold milk with hot doughnuts
and listening to jazz, always there
especially when no one was playing,
even too young to know it was jazz.

It is not a season but Saturday matinees,
sitting in the dark cool and watching
badly acted Italian movies with English subtitles,
or taking the bus into town with mother
for shopping and a movie and (if I was lucky)
a ride on the streetcar.

It is not a season but falling asleep
to the sound of the attic fan, upper lip
washed lightly in sweat, or a week
at grandmother’s house and tooling
around in a slightly newer than Model T Ford,
or with the aunt in the Ninth Ward
with a front yard called the levee
of the Industrial Canal.

It is not a season but candy
at small grocery stores and R.C. Colas
with peanuts in the bottom and Moon Pies
whose chocolate melted on your fingers
and homemade ice cream at church socials.

It is not a season but it was all real,
helping construct a child and a childhood,
and now it resides, quietly,
in the mirage of memory.


Over at dVerse Poets, today, the prompt is about summer and heat and mirages. To see what others have done, please visit dVerse Poets.


Photograph by George Hodan via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.

13 comments:

Rundelane Blog said...

Love this glimpse into your childhood summers, Glynn. The beignets, the jazz, the sound of the attic fan. You're right...it's more than a season, isn't it? More like a building block, I think.

Anonymous said...

Wow! Really poignant and it creates a beautiful image.. I also liked the free flow of words; they weren't forced anywhere.

Brian Miller said...

smiles...i got a lot of the same memories as well...childhood was a time...i went to summer camp as well...we lived through it and it made us, for sure...smiles.

Kathy Reed said...

....found a lot of similarities here to mine..and my mother's childhood; and the memories seem like mirages, but they were real.....events that played out during a time when we were so impressionable....summer, though, has it's special times...would like to hear about your other "seasons" or recollections in other times as well...;)

Claudia said...

smiles...no it's not the season but all the little things that build the memories and give it a taste and temperature and that specific feel we will never ever forget in our whole life...nicely played glynn

brudberg said...

What a lovely sentiment to times passed by. Summed up so well in that last lingering sentiment, the mirage of memories ..

Laurie Kolp said...

I just love this!!

Jerry said...

Excellent.

Truedessa said...

I enjoyed the mirage of summer memories. Thanks for sharing..

grapeling said...

this has the murmur of memory, and the gentle touch of receding and softly lapping waves. ~ M

Martha Jane Orlando said...

Loved this trip down memory lane, Glynn. Reminds me of my own childhood. :)

Anonymous said...

i totally enjoyed this.
so glad that you wrote it.

Misky said...

Totally wonderful.