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

  • The sun

    you're not

    leaving yet. no,

    i'll glue your limbs to the pavement,

    lower your waving hand,

    tell you

    something to make your eyes crinkle

    again.

    again,

    again,

    again.

  • Curl Cream

    I have been told

    To put curl cream in my hair

    Upside down, eyes 

    Straining against the ceiling light,

    Curls straining toward the tile floor,

    Bunching.

    I will smell

  • Dress

    I'm wearing the same dress I wore last year, on an evening that felt like moonlight even though the sky was still a milky purple-blue by the time we left, arms linked, laughter spilling over each other and turning the air fragrant, because back th