2am and even the mosquitoes are sleeping, but we are still up, campers slumbering in bunk bed cabins with wet towels hanging from wooden pegs, luna moths circling bathroom lights in the distance, the talk goes on and on, 17 year-olds under summer stars in virginia countryside night, sitting on wooden picnic tables, flirting with time and each other, we’ve hit that moment where words don’t matter anymore, just eyes twinkling in the quiet dark surrounded by trees, warm july breeze, daylight will arrive, but not yet, not yet.
Tag: Summer
A Rattlesnake Story
the rattlesnake doesn’t care, has heard the stories about sucking out venom and survival, how the young can’t control the release of poison, sun is out, languid, or perhaps curled up as if, but no, the rattlesnake doesn’t care, sits there on the trail, the protagonist in your story, the one where you fear the fangs, as if that would actually happen, and it could, you claim, show everyone the video of that one man, his hand swollen, they are dangerous, see, i told you, but the rattlesnake doesn’t care, the ground is just the ground, dirt, rocks, summer heat on hillside home, your story is just your story, the rattlesnake doesn’t care, slithers away
20 One-Liners After Reading Joe Brainard
Winter
Ice is more likely than snow.
Summer
Sun, sand, and shore, what you thought.
Writing
Is only part of what I am thinking.
Today
Will be like tomorrow, but different.
In the country
Deer cross roads and sometimes die.
Recipe
One part chocolate, one part graham cracker, one part marshmallow, add flame first.
That feeling
When you just know.
Ecuador
The place where a cow fell on me but missed.
Happiness
Is a good Beatles song or a warm puppy.
Money
Do pennies really matter anymore?
Lake
Powell, Crater, Radnor, Tahoe, Champlain
The Sky
Isn’t falling, although it sometimes feels that way.
Carrots
Taste best with hummus.
Modern Times
Everyone has the answer, no one has the answer.
Real life
When your tooth is being extracted.
Loyalty
Is canceling all of your plans.
Something to think about
If you are really really quiet, you probably already know.
Virginia
I am always a young person there.
Human nature
To believe in the divine.
Stars
The phosphorescent paint in constellation stories.
Laugh With Summer
The eternal summer laughs, joyce mansour, the name, the face, the poet, jewish-eygptian, born in england, portrait fragments. she was right, the eternal summer laughs, like fireflies, barefoot grass, lemonade, and tanned skin. as tom hanks said, there’s no crying in baseball, save your tears for winter, today we laugh with june.
The Girl From Ipanema
astrud in black and white, bossa nova posterchild, rio de janeiro summer, probably first heard it in a west village cafe, turned any room into a beach, even in february new york city, samba power, brasil cool, we lost her, ms. gilberto, but the song lives on and on
Of Love and Madrid
her curfew midnight, i sprinted the summer streets of madrid. by metro and taxi, she, an hour away, then an hour back across the capital city. 16 years old, when i could run and sweat, 94 degrees dripping down my cheeks. it didn’t matter, because i always stood by the open window of the metro train, hot air drying everything except the pounding blood in my chest, and i hardly knew it, but this was love. arriving, eyes aglow, to stroll on an ancient moorish pathway, share a morsel of ice cream. 12am, taxi, underground train, back to carabanchel, the far reaches of madrileńo civilization. never a second thought that i would do it all over the next night.
Embarrassing Moment, July 1987
Summer asphalt, I feel it against my cheek, warm with embarrassment and sun’s absorption, after toe snags into pothole and I tumble face first into the road’s crosswalk. This, while holding two Slurpees in July, neither spills, miracle of frozen blue sugar ice. Honking cars and trucks applaud, recognizing my brief journey from sky to ground, entertainment while waiting for red to turn to green. I rise slowly, take a small bow, try to grin, clutch the drinks and walk again.
Dinner at Husk
May 25th 2023 or Writing Exercise #1
Quarter of 7, up, make Hudson breakfast, drive to school, check for vultures that were feasting on two dead deer the day before, the deer are gone, strange. Anyway, Hudson’s last full day of school, so happy/sad, that pre-summer, pre-moving out of Tennessee feeling. Home, upload Alphabet poem onto my blog, check email. Fruit only breakfast, blueberries, bananas, apples, all cut up (not the blueberries), eaten with a spoon. Oolong tea, gift from a student, the perfect gift. Read a book on intuition, meditation, sitting, allowing the universe to guide you/me, by Echo Bodine. Talk with my wife, she’s in California driving, hear the road, 280, heading to San Francisco. Meditate for 16 minutes, why 16? Because, it’s one more than 15, bonus minute for me. Walk on treadmill, slowly, because of spondylolisthesis, old man Dan. Nostalgic for the summer of 1988, listen to sweet child o’ mine, treat people with kindness, see Harry Styles dancing, When In Rome, the promise, then sleepyhead, Passion Pit, details, details, details. Research Axl Rose, Wikipedia says he’s 61, abusive childhood, Lafayette, Indiana, home of Purdue, but bad times for Axl. Harry is 29, happy childhood in Redditch, Worcestershire, England, but I didn’t have to tell you the England part, you knew that, and he does seem kind, at least in the video. Suntan by the pool, 14 minutes, slow and steady wins the race, what race? I just like the ritual, hearing birds, watching the ants. Next, oh the excitement, a double pilates workout with Caroline Jordan, I watch her on a screen for 20 minutes, take a break, then another 30, floor based, again, spondylolisthesis, born with it. Salad, so healthy, broccoli, brussel sprouts, carrots, cabbage, olive oil, bit of salt and sunflower seeds, bubbly water, a must, now here to write.
Martha’s Vineyard 1980’s
Daniel W. Polk 