Late July

and the concrete burns like charcoal embers

We dance and skip across the driveway

like pigeons playing hopscotch

The grass is bright and green and cool

A blanket on which we play

Leaping through the sprinkler

Like tiny madmen on fire

The air smells of earth and sun and joy

Lips stained red and blue

And we stretch and grow as the sun feeds our souls

Time is an abstract concept

Punctuated only by the grumble of a hungry belly

Wrapped in brightly colored towels

We sit and shiver and with hurried bites we eat

And only stop to sip the tinny, ice cold water from the hose

The sun is setting in colors that blaze across the atmosphere

Fiery at first then pinks and blues

A perfect cotton candy sky

Warm breezes that wrap around our bodies like a blanket

The smell of jasmine as it opens to the moon

The night is languid and fills with stars

We catch them in our hands

They blink and fly and disappear

In Late July