The Summer After

The Summer After

(as a Haiku)

Outside smelled like sun

and hot pine needles raining

golden redemption.

(variation)

It smells like sun

and baked pine needles

and renewal.

The world is still on fire in the distance,

but here it’s all golden redemption.                                                            

*                   *                   *

(people watching)

Families stream through the streets dripping sweat

They pull wagons of kids and carry dragon kites

Dads with bare tattooed chests

Call their kids to the piñata

A man with three-inch holes in his earlobes orders bubble tea for his children

Blended watermelon and green apple boba

Honeydew with strawberry beads

Rainbow jellies in lemonade

Taro with black honey tapioca

And a blended Thai tea

Thirty-six dollars

They eat sushi and smile

A German Shepard paces in the back of a pickup

And the young woman scrunched into the backseat waves to the dog through the truck’s tiny window

Families flow through the town with blue plastic buckets and sand toys

Babies at the park, so many babies

Being carried in one arm by confident daddies

Wading for the first time in a lake

Smiling at strangers

Everyone has emerged

I know they have stories, pain

They walk the streets carrying on with their lives

Sizzling in the heat

Buying

Eating

Laughing

Sweating

Moving forward together