"Watermelon Man"

I-95S late June 2012

Sweltering lazy afternoons
stretched beneath shade trees
awaiting
indeed hoping
for the smallest of breezes
to cool the brow,
skin sticky with sweat
from play dates
with playmates
as we
rambunctiously
ran
and romped
resting rarely
conscious barely
of the
heat and humidity
of the season,
skin
sticky

with sugary traces of cool
and refreshing popsicles
or from
the thirst-quenching, tasty
and tantalizing sweetness
of watermelon slices,
the juicy goodness
cascading down our chins
as we sneekingly stored slippery
ammunition
in our mouths
"friendly fire"
punctuated with laughter

and rivalry...
who
could spit  the farthest?

Summer days of my youth
blurred from memory
until
the day
when I spied
the watermelon man

making his deliveries,
the promise
of lasting
and sweetly simple
summertime
revelries.
        ~T


Incidentally...
I never made it to the
Seed Spitting Hall of Fame.