Reading: Summer

Alkelda as a little girl

I first read this poem by Myra Cohn Livingston on an old bookmark for a library summer reading program:

Reading: Summer

Summer is with it,
she’s wild,
she likes
bare legs and cutoffs
and camping
and hikes;
she dives in deep water
she wades in a stream
she guzzles cold drinks
and she drowns in ice-cream;
she runs barefoot,
she picnics,
she fishes,
digs bait,
she pitches a tent
and she stays up too late
while she counts out the stars,
swats mosquitoes and flies,
hears crickets,
smells pine trees
spies night-creature eyes;
she rides bareback,
goes sailing,
plays tennis,
climbs trees;
she soaks in the sunshine;
she gulps in a breeze;
she tastes the warm air
on the end of her tongue,
and she falls asleep
reading
alone
in the sun.
--Myra Cohn Livingston

Addendum: Check out the bat poems posted on The Miss Rumphius Effect. You know how much I love bats.