Summer's Child

I want to float on the surface of a warm summer's day,

to be there in sunshine, body and soul wrapped up in the sweet

in the heart of that God-forsaken Alabama heat.

let my hair get tangled in the water and the laughter

in the ugly, sticky silence but for the buzzing bee's wings

and the whole world smells of flowers, no more looking out windows

wishing for life to come rushing like a train passing through

I'm done walking like a vagrant, thumb-out and wide eyed,

let me sit a while and I'll wander round no more

settled like a fat cat, lazy in the warm summer sun

until the earth, the heat, and my body are one.

Like the smile of God, like a wink and a nod

Let my skin turn brown and sink into the ground

Becoming like the roots of some large, knotted tree

digging my feet, full and deep, into every living thing

really knowing what it means to live-- to take in and be

to open my eyes the first time from a long winter's sleep

let me awake in wonder, naked to truth and swallowed by grace

Let the whole world breathe around me and stare square in my face.

fists clenched and bones bared I'll confess to these mountains that I'm

somehow unashamed to live and, maybe, unafraid to die

were that I could be a fleeting moment in the sweet summertime.