Use Your Words: Find Myself Longing for Summer

Summer is not my favorite season,

summer is not really my jam,

but as June, July, and August

approach in their usual pack,

I find myself longing for the winding days,

the heat that slowly drives us all crazy,

crazy enough to leap bare-legged into freezing Lake Champlain

and actually enjoy it.

Summer is not my favorite season,

summer is not really my jam,

but when elementary school is over

and middle school becomes my next impending doom,

we’ll be biking, roaming, laughing

as we chase the ice cream truck so far it has to stop

and relinquish the frosty treat

that melts faster than we can lick it off our fingers.

No, I’m not excited for the summer constellations of angry red bumps

that’ll surely appear on my everything before the week is out,

but summer means nothing,

nothing to stress over, nothing to finish, no deadlines

no nothing, except summer.

No, I’m not excited for the summer muggy, clinging heat

made all the worse by my thick hair and insistence upon being outside,

but summer means everything,

everything lazy, everything fun, everything sweet and cool,

everything sunny and warm and summer.

Summer is not my favorite season,

summer is not really my jam,

but as school break comes up on us quicker than spring can end,

I find myself longing

for summer.

— Sela Morgenstein Fuerst, 11, South Burlington