I Reminisce, I Miss

I reminisce, I miss the sound of our giggles as we lay - my sisters and I – on our beds whispering into those sweltering summer nights until inevitably, my stepdad yelled up the stairs at us to go to sleep! I would put my face right up to the fan which loudly whirred inside the window at the foot of my bed. Those were the nights of easy sleep and easy dreams. Little was my stress; large was my joy. And oh, those summer days when we awoke to no more school. My siblings and I rode bikes around town, or sometimes we walked miles - while sucking on popsicles - to the city pool where we’d splash around carefree all afternoon. Friends also monopolized my adolescent life. Oh, those fun slumber parties at which no one ever seemed to slumber! Games, the music of our time, and chit-chat about boys consumed us late into the night. Picnic reunions with church folks or with relatives: always the sight, smell and taste of homemade meals I recall: the wonderful homemade potato salads, fried chicken, burgers and hot dogs on the grill, Mom’s homemade Sunday pot roast with mashed potatoes . . . I could go on forever. But back to the night I go - of those hot but lovely summer firefly nights where sleep and dreams came easy I reminisce, I miss. March 28, 2021 for the contest of James Edward Lee Sr. Now for A Brian Strand July 8 Poetry Contest