M. B. Poet Free verse

How To Spend a Summer

The first inevitability of summer is
that your fingertips will never be clean
They will at all times be covered
in fruit juices
strawberries first, then cherries,
watermelon, peaches, blueberries, blackberries
pears and plums if you’re lucky

The only way to cleanse them is to
jump in a lake, sometimes a river
without pretense, whole body at once
in a way that is sure to get water up your nose,
really it’s unavoidable
But a fair trade for clean hands
and conscience

The second inevitability of summer is
that it never has the same number of days
as the calendar shows
Therefore, children have conspired amongst themselves 
to steal back handfuls at a time
from the night to counterbalance

I’ve done it once or twice myself
Old habits don’t seem to die for me
they just get harder to cover up
what with the sticky fingers and all

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The Situation September 13, 2023 at 6:51 PM Our fruit were vegetables. Picked and shelled. But it was summer in the creeks and the woods. I read along in comparison.