Saturday, July 11, 2009

summertime anxiety

your tongue was cold
from letting ice cubes
melt inside your mouth
i tasted the remnants of Coca Cola
when we kissed
you'd been pool-side
bathing in sunlight
and your bikini was still wet
when you pressed against me
it left a damp smiling face on my shirt
you undressed in the locker room
and we laughed together
at your tan lines
the smell of Coppertone
ran up my nose
as i closed in on your skin

and now
my neighbor
the young Mexican girl
is trying to call her little dog
out of my backyard
the rhythm of her language
thumping like a drum
it reminds me of the chanting of family spirits
that tried to get me out of the house
mom would call from my bedroom door
"sweetie, it's so beautiful today.
why don't you go outside?"


i guess i'm overwhelmed
at the loss of that summer
when i was full of promise in my youth
the fear of leaving this couch
mounting up
with all those wasps
building their nests
around the doors of my house

4 comments:

K said...

I like this.

a modern clock to chime. said...

You've done a really good job of creating a world for the reader to explore with each of their senses. I feel like a voyeur.

cb said...

Thanks, AMCTC.
Voyeurism, can be fun.

Enri Zoltz said...

Yeah, this piece is delicious. I like the defeated laziness that perpetually follows time and goes so well with summer. The past, real or imagined, is so nicely shirked. Left to pick up its own mess. Owing itself reasons and feelings. Allows us to witness, objectify.