Sounds of Summer

 

The hot breeze, tussling our hair

as it blows through the yard,

carrying the groaning of air conditioners

and the growling of lawn maintenance

on its back, sounding like an army on the march,

smelling of cut grass, exhaust, asphalt and tar.

 

The sounds of Summer

are different for everyone.

Some hear the tall summer

grasses rustling in the rural

breezes of an idyllic countryside,

while others hear the waves of

a man made, land-locked lake lapping

the pillars of a sun-bleached pier.

I’m only mildly familiar with those sounds.

 

The Summer sound I hear most,

is traffic.

An urban noise, people in a rush

to get from one side of the city

to the other. Engines whining and

roaring, horns blaring and music

thumping from car windows,

echoing off the scorching brick and cement

of city sidewalks.

 

I know somewhere children run,

screaming with glee as they engage

in pitched squirt gun battles, drenched

in Summer fun and cooling water,

yet I can barely hear them over the

pool filters humming noisily and

backyard speakers blaring unfamiliar

and ethnic music.

 

The joyful Summer sounds seem

muted by the noise of mechanization,

of destination over the journey, the buzzing,

beeping, and cacophony of the next thing,

the next moments moment.

The white noise of Summer.