Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Summer in Kansas

Wind-chimes softly sing in the breeze
Distant birds chirp

Tree branches and leaves sway to nature's melody
The sun warms my face

I close my eyes to soak it all in
Goosebumps form as the wind in the grass tickles my skin
A sip of lemonade puckers my lips
My body sinks into the earth after a long day of play

As the train horn blows, my mind is brought back to now
I bury my toes into the cool grass and stretch
My skin craws as I swat away mosquitos and grasshoppers
Time to retreat into the over-cooled house passed the swirling smells of summer

2 comments:

  1. Poems can be interpreted in many ways, but when they dwell close as in my perspective…they explode with vivid visages.

    SUMMER IN KANSAS is a flashback to memories at the family farm just south of Lancaster, Kansas.
    Those days in the 1980’s are reflected by a little girl whose father takes her to the farm to visit her paternal grandparents. While her dad is busy doing a variety of things on the farm….tending to tomato plants, potato plots, mixing potting soil for sales, or helping with regular farming chores…his daughter is outside the farm house in the yard. Grandma is probably in the house fixing lemonade and fixing some items for supper.

    The chimes by the backdoor are making their usual musical sounds…blending with the sounds of Robins up the Siberian Elm trees. It is a sunny day in July or August likely in the afternoon. As she momentarily relaxes from extended play…she closes her eyes to feel the moment standing in the grass under a tree…where the shade previously kept the grass cool. The grass was usually mowed fairly tall allowing the blades of grass to surround her bare feet. Knowing my mother, Thelma loved lemonade and offered it frequently to the grand kids on hot days.
    The farm house was but a half mile from the railroad track…and the whistle blew as the rail cars often full of coal from Wyoming traveled through our home town on the way to the power plant across the Missouri River. The rumble and whistle noise would ‘awaken’ the little girl standing in the cool grass and suddenly feel the insects so often abounding in Kansas at that time of year…mosquitos, grasshoppers, and not the least…chiggers. I don’t blame the daughter to run to the house leaving the insects behind but missing the wondrous smells and warmth of outdoors for the over air-conditioned house. Grandma always had yet another treat for the kids.

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  2. This grand daughter of Kansas is actually the sixth generation of Kansans. Her great-great-great grandparents are buried not 13 miles away in Doniphan Cemetery. They came to Kansas Territory in 1860 and their spirits are alive yet after one hundred fifty years of Kansas summers.

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