chalk

This past weekend
while playing with sidewalk chalk
during the time of day when the heat index
hasn't yet reached ninety degrees

I ruminated on childhood
and wonder
and discovery

Sidewalk chalk is as fun as I remember it being
although since all of my artistic ability
came in the form of words
I started thinking of poems
song lyrics
quotes

and I as remembered
maggie and milly and molly and may

I thought to be grateful for playtime(even in the humidity)
and for you.

*

maggie and milly and molly and may
went down to the beach (to play one day)

and maggie discovered a shell that sang
so sweetly she couldn't remember her troubles,and

milly befriended a stranded star
whose rays five languid fingers were;

and molly was chased by a horrible thing
which raced sideways while blowing bubbles:and

may came home with a smooth round stone
as small as a world and as large as alone.

For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)
it's always ourselves we find in the sea

--e.e. cummings