A Villanelle

The pool is open, did you not hear? 

There’s a banner in town advertising it. 

Summer hasn’t yet slipped from my fingertips. 

 

I almost want to cry 

When I think about June morphing into July morphing into August. 

I don’t want to think about high school 

 

So I hold onto summer, 

Delude myself with these fast, magical three months. 

I don’t want to think about high school. 

 

Just months ago there was snow dusted across our yard; 

Now it’s full of ripe green grass tipped with brown, 

The hammock under the tree. 

 

Only weeks until I go to camp. 

It feels like just yesterday that I was last there

And spun sunlit memories across the wide cool pond.

 

Days are gone, and better ones are to come,

But I hold onto summer with all my might,

Dreading the moment when the last tendrils of heat

Slip from my fingertips.

star

NH

15 years old

More by star

  • stranger to blue water

    sing to me.

     

    i've been a stranger once more

    to your hills and valleys, to the

    gaps of sunlight between your grasping evergreens.

    i've been a stranger

    to the red barn

  • you already know summer

    you've felt

    the brambles and sweat, 

    the curl of berry-stained lips.

    you've seen

    the cornflower sky stolen

    by a red-orange river,

    the evening still thick

    with lightning bugs and laughter.

  • january 24th, 2010

    her voice sounded heavy to her, filled

    with the unnamed emotion

    everyone had told her to expect. except

    she hadn't. she'd rolled

    her eyes at the shiny pamphlets and blog posts