Summer Repose

Summer is for stretchpants;

all day long.

Summer is for sleeping in until 8:30 or so…

Summer is for shopping;

one dinner at a time,

perusing the market for the most colorful and fresh things to eat,

spending the late afternoon chopping vegetables and mincing garlic while listening to public radio,

Summer is for sitting with cats on the ground,

giving them sticks, strings, and brown paper bags to attack,

Summer is for stretching and organizing sweater boxes in between yoga poses,

 

Summer is for seeing friends old and new,

walking and talking through the park,

Summer is for dropping off a bag of treasures at the Goodwill, 

then sifting through their shelves for an 8x10” frame for a new print, that is exactly two dollars and fifty cents,

Summer is for salvaging empty bottles of olive oil, hair conditioner, and spices, and taking them, to be refilled;

instead of recycled or thrown away.

Summer is for standing back;

noticing the walls,

the space between two pictures, 

the food smeared above the trash can, 

the picture frames slightly tilting,

Summer is for conquering the cords competing for the same electrical outlet,

zip tying them together,

Summer is for hammering a nail or two into the wall,

leveling out the pictures on the wall, 

adding one or two,

sponging off the smudges of sauce and coffee grounds from the countertops,

listening to the cars zoom past,

and the sparrows making their nests.