Summer Play

By Hana Ismaiel, 16

a fruity summer greets the neighborhood:

     june embraces fleeing spirits

     and euphoric laughter that melts

forgotten yesterdays into cotton dust

so blissfully do the youth seize their joys

     and clementines,

under creamsicle skies their pigtails

glide up and down the sun-splashed pavement

and through the grassy streets;

too vibrant are the hours to watch slip away, as

the lavender air brews into star-rippled dusk

and an applewood fragrance drips through daylight’s fume

no blackened night

can dim this bottomless happy day, for

     from ripe afternoon to luscious twilight,

the world belongs to them —

amidst drenched shirtsleeves and striped shorts 

the neighborhood beams with

eyes as moonlit as the street lamps,

     fawns whose earth-caked feet prance

     over the orange-tinted porches,

till at last! night threads her blanket for

the children to fade into slumbers

     and put their dizzy limbs at rest . . .

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I wrote this poem to appreciate the beauty of seemingly simple childhood memories, specifically those of summer days. I recall many magical experiences of those days—spending hours playing outdoors without a worry in my mind, feeling “on top of the world,” and wishing that time could freeze. Although these are commonplace childhood experiences, they are incredibly valuable to me and strike me with keen feelings of nostalgia. In this poem I made an effort to express the sheer elegance that lies in the little details of these memories.

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