{"id":1650,"date":"2011-06-29T04:00:38","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coreyshead.com\/blog\/?p=1650"},"modified":"2014-02-14T09:17:07","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T17:17:07","slug":"summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coreyshead.com\/blog\/2011\/06\/29\/summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Summer:<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Summer days stung
\nwith sweet leaf chewing tobacco
\nthe bitter blood of choke cherries
\nand crisp stalked asparagus purloined
\nlike the shade we find and eat it in<\/p>\n

Scrambling monkey-cling and crablike
\nup the thick crack-barked cottonwood trunk
\nto the sawn-stump seat-back
\nwhere we nestle and drape under
\nthe clapping canopy of leather tough leaves<\/p>\n

Shirts off to run-tumbling down crumbling dirt cliffs
\nour skins pricked with cactus needles and red-ant pincers
\npockets full of guys and matchbox cars
\nAlways going home with less than we took
\nbut grass and dirt and scabs their weight in trade<\/p>\n

Lazy dogs sniff out cherries for pitty poos
\nthen lie in the long grass shade snapping at flies
\nor rise to leap a-twist for a gargling bite
\nof dirty ditch water as it sprays a-chatter
\nfrom the homemade rainbird\u2019s high metal beak <\/p>\n

Lunchtime paper plates and pan toasted sandwiches
\nof American cheese on white, split in diagonal twain
\na handful of ripple chips, rubbery dill pickle spear
\nthree cookies each, and a plastic cup of iced sun-tea
\nMmmmmm, mom may I have some more chips, please?<\/p>\n

Denim cut-offs on patched and puckered innertubes;
\nunder branch and over barbed wire we cruise
\nthe silt-salted, sucker-fish skies all the while
\nwatching for white bellied garter snakes describing
\ntheir infinite essess across the slow-swell of the surface<\/p>\n

Flattened toads frisbeed, spear grass spiked
\nand a banana seat bike with a boss
\n3-speed gear shift knob and pedal brakes
\nleaving black swoops of smeared rubber
\non the clean concrete of the new Big-T bridge<\/p>\n

Mom’s patterned whistle – the same for the dogs
\ncalls a grudging halt and shirts on for dinner
\nthen out of doors again for a snipped slip of rhubarb stalk
\nbetween the teeth, so sour, so sweet
\nDon\u2019t touch the leaves: Poison!<\/p>\n

Summer nights stung with
\nthe wheeling squeal of just glimpsed bats
\nand a stippling of mosquitos despite the spray
\nThe sticky suck of an iced-fruit pop
\ndripping its juice down your arm<\/p>\n

The poetry of fire and the mystery of the smoke
\nthat follows those who try and hide from it
\nTen steps away in the country dark
\nand the dizzying endlessness of stars reduces
\nyour magical everything to less than a winking spark<\/p>\n

Now off to bed, off to bed: the dogs are in and
\nyou\u2019re far too big to be carried anymore
\nHush and lie down, you\u2019re sleepy, you\u2019ll see
\nit\u2019ll still be summer tomorrow
\nIn memory\u2019s mind\u2019s eye this: the cruelest lie<\/p>\n

Summer\u2019s past stung with
\nthings long gone and the echoes
\nof songs sung like the wild sweet pea vines
\nthat twined and hung on the ditch bank fence
\nand offered up their fruits unfailing<\/p>\n

The dogs are dead, the house is sold
\nthe neighbors gone, or grey and old
\nthe light is failing; growing cold
\nbut in my mind, where they unfold
\nmemories ember warm and gold<\/p>\n

cae 06-28-11<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Summer:<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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