summertime and the livin is easy fish are jumpin and the cotton is high

summer mornings

i have

breakfast

on the deck

with my mother


good morning

mrs. redmond

she says

to our neighbor

who always seems to be

hanging

out the laundry


we sit

side by side

at the white plastic table

the wide

lattice straps

of the chairs

digging

into the backs of our thighs


i swing my legs

back and forth

because

my feet

don't touch the ground


we eat

grapefruits

or bowls of cereal

and

my mother

always

drinks tea

with milk and sugar


sometimes i have tea

and sometimes i don't


my mother

doesn't really

follow the rules

in the summer


she lets me

go outside

without any shoes

and she doesn't

make me

brush my hair

(at least not before breakfast)


still

she always

uses a napkin

to carefully collect

the crumbs

from her toast


the funny thing

about napkins

is that with every gentle

summer breeze

they try

to fly away


our neighborhood

is mostly quiet

except for

the birds and crickets


i notice

every ant

every bee

every spider


there is a spider

that spins

her

web

between mrs. redmond's house

and ours


every day

we knock it down

and every morning

it's been spun again

sprinkled with

drops of dew

that glisten

in the morning sun


i think to myself

doesn't that spider

sleep?


i hope i never

see that spider

unless

my dad is home


my dad

isn't afraid of spiders

you know

he isn't really afraid

of anything

i think


neither is my

brother

he's not even

afraid

of mrs. redmond's

dog

(and he seems pretty mean)


my brother

is the strongest

kid

on our block


he doesn't say anything

twice


i go where he goes

not really because he wants me to

but

because i can


in the summer

we get to

stay out late

and play

whiffle ball in the street


sometimes

we even get italian ice

from the truck that drives by our house


my dad usually gets lemon

so does my mom

sometimes she gets chocolate though

and i always get raspberry

only

the problem with raspberry

is that if you don't eat it fast enough

it melts

and

it makes a stain if you spill


a lot of times

if i can't finish

my dad

finishes

mine


when we come in

my mother tells us

not to

let in any moths


the moths

hover

by the light

shining

above our front door


we take

baths

and my mother

dries my hair

while

my dad and brother

watch tv


i don't know what time it is

when our family

goes to sleep


but we sleep

together

under our roof

under a sky full of stars