Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Summer


Yesterday twin boy wanted to do something just with me,
so we walked a mile to the tennis courts,
carrying two tennis balls, two rackets and walking two dogs.

He never played before, but was sure he could do it.
And with signature style, he showed
that he could, indeed, volley a tennis ball back and forth over the net.

Wanda surprised us by
sitting at the net and returning balls to the server.
Sometimes we hit it off the courts into the grass
just to see her tear after it happily.

Buddy, the dachshund, sat looking away from us,
long back end twisted lazily on the concrete,
uninterested and uninspired by Wanda's energy.

One time we hit the ball into the bushes and Wanda
went in after it and we followed,
lured by the sight of wild blackberries ripening
on a thorny vine.

We abandoned the game without another thought,
dropping our rackets to pick and eat,
circling the bushes until we were out of sight of Buddy,
who howled at our absence.

Returning to him we cupped hands under the drinking fountain
to give both dogs a drink,
the lazy one and the working one,
and then headed home sweaty, mosquito-bitten
and berry-stained

just like you should be
in the summer.

*

8 comments:

Brian Miller said...

what a cool day...love picking blackberries and the scooping water for the dog...priceless...perfect summer day.

CiCi said...

Sounds like a wonderful time for mom and son and dogs. Where do you get all your energy?

Heidi Lee said...

That sounds SO FUN.

I could picture it all.

I think it's nice you did something JUST with "twin boy"...it's so hard to find that one on one time that our kids need so badly.

Fun!

Cammie said...

You're awesome! What a fun evening activity!

mrc-w said...

Awww, Wanda made the blog!!

Kelle said...

Oh, Heather you are such a beautiful writer. I've always loved this kind of stuff from you. Smiled all the way through it!

Unknown said...

Honestly! That IS just what summer should be. Exactly what summer should be : )

Such a great post. Hope your weekend is filled with firecrackers and many more things of summer : )

Diane said...

Great post - I could picture the whole thing!

Except Wanda. Who's Wanda?????