"when summer had a sound..."

"I want nothing,
I long for nothing,
I hum gently
the sounds of childhood..."
- H. Hesse


there was a time...

before we
rushed to
close our windows
to the sweltering
heat
of dog day
afternoons...

a time
when summer
had a
sound...

you could hear the
end of spring
as clearly
as
the call of a loon
or the
voice of
angels
on night of
a Savior's
birth...

there was a time when
summer was
noisy with the
thwack of a screen door
and the laughter of
children punctuating the easy
staccato
rhythm of
a lawn sprinkler
cycling back and forth
across the back
yard
just beyond the
kitchen
window
where mother
stood
listening
for the
first "i'm hungry"
from the lips of
grass-stained
babes
ready for
an
afternoon
nap

summer sounded like
the whirr of an oscillating fan,
the tinkle of ice cubes
melting in a
tall glass of sweet tea,
the soft whisper of
a butterfly's
wings against
the petals
of a
rose

evenings were
rich with a sound as
heavy as honey
falling from the comb
and as
gentle as the breathing of a
younger
child in the
arms of her sister
stretched out lazily
on the old porch swing,
while
the little boys
chased fireflies
under the
sliver of moonlight,
living lightning
that bumped against the
glass of a
mason jars,
till
dawn
breaks like
silence
in the
east...

remember when
summer had a sound
and windows were
open to the
buzzing of flies,
the hum of a lawn mower,
the song of whippoorwills,
and the lapping of
water against
a wooden sailboat
as it bumped into the
weathered dock at the
water's edge...

remember
when summer
had
a
sound that
softened the
lines between morning and
evening and
sweetened our memories
with the
music of yesterday...

today...

To think nothing,
to know nothing,
only to breathe,
only to feel...”
― H. Hesse