L'aura del Campo

Banishing the dark. Polish Hill.

The Summer solstice is celebrated throughout Scandinavia by bonfires that link one day to the next. It is a way of celebrating light though the very short white nights.

Here in Kansas, the solstice merely confirms that summer and 90º heat is upon us. Our nights are about 8 hours long in contrast to the 3 to 4 hours in places like Stockholm and Oslo. Tromsø in the far north has two months of no-night-at-all.

For me ... this means buying another notebook to write my journal in. I combined Winter and Spring in the last one (pages 1172-1257), but I intend to write more this season, especially when I get to travel.

The good news today was a call from ♥Flower♥ . Helped lower my stress. She lives close enough for a day trip too. So some day ... coffee!

Polish Hill

On the slopes of Polish Hill,
the pond lay near the road where cousin Larry swam
and inner tubes grabbed hold of portly aunt Maxine.
I watched, a shy-child,
too shy to join them.

And in the house where aunt Mandy ruled,
Big Betty baked the cookies that they sold
upon the front glass porch.
But I remember best the toilet stained with rust
when I couldn't hold

it any longer, while the long lawn sloped
to the picnic grounds behind the house
into the trees, there where autumn shade
reigned above dirt paths
that uncle John would take us down

on a tractor toward the road that ran
to Falconer. Yes. I remember this
and being shy, picking up the vibrant
leaves, too shy to join them
in their laughter.

© Kåre Enga [164.114] 07-06-21

IMAGES:

Scattered Linden wings and seeds; a young squirrel clinging to the bark, shaking his tail at me.

One white magnolia high in its tree on Tennessee.

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