Poetry: 85 degrees Fahrenheit

Closing the door on the silent house
I step outside into the newly green
Bird noisy day
To go for a walk

I look at the grass and trees
Some bushes have broken out in huge deep pink blossoms
Almost as large as my hands — wonder what they are —

I laugh in remembrance of a walk taken
With my daughter many years ago
I had never learned official names for nature
Beyond the common robin, blue jay, sparrow and such
Beyond the maple, willow and fir tree
All bush fruit were Bird Berries
She asked for the name of an unusual looking bird
I told her ‘Fred'
We discovered a tree with huge leaves
Huge bright green leaves bigger than our hands
The plain dark brown barked tree looked like a coloring book picture
We called the tree ‘TREE' and its leaves ‘LEAFS'
These flowers would make a good match

Red and white tulips condescend to bow
To the nearby social-climbing yellow dandelions
Purple lilacs are coming out
Various fluffy topped white and tan plants
Tower over the deep green ground cover — probably weeds —

The sky is crayon blue
With pure white bunny clouds hopping through
Not covering the eye-blinding golden sun — for a change

It is late spring
Summer seems actually to be in store

I walk down to the river which flows deep and fast
Somewhere between rootbeer and mud brown
Yesterday's floods are retreating

In the summer the river regains its reflective aspect
And looks blue like the sky
Or green and tea-brown like the vegetation on its banks
Or clear; showing fish swimming over discarded trash at the bottom

Today I am greeted with the first "Hot enough for you?"
"Yes! I'll take it! Can you hug a day?"

My walk extends past my usual hour
And I finally arrive back home tired and thirsty

We keep the shades down to keep the heat out
— a trick learned from southern relatives; before ac —
So it's dark and comparatively cool

Sunlight still sneaks between the slats
Blond wood floors and furniture shine as if they were freshly waxed
My house is calm and golden — the treasure at the end of the hot walk

I sit gratefully and drink my iced tea

KJ Hooten is a retired interpreter for the deaf in the Flint school system. She has lived in or near Flint since 1970. Besides writing poetry, she has published two children's books, The Egg Nanny Tales and Stories to Amuse the Kids that can be found on amazon.com.