Ode to Summer

Ah summer
If I could shake your hand
Or give you a high five
Or the the hip bump thing
Both sides
On a dock like In Parent Trap
We could lie in bed at 5:45 am
Listen to the birds
Get up only to open the shades
So we can see the sun from the covers
Our hair crunching in the sheets
From the humidity
And the late night swims
We could wear our swimsuits from 9 to 9
Petrified straps
Sand under the seams
Never taking them off because that would mean we couldn’t fly
10 feet above the ground
Underwater
At a moment’s notice
We could take our time with our books
Summer reading
In the hammock and on the train and the same picnic table we always sit at
Summer we could be friends

—By Ainsleigh W., 16, Connecticut ♦