SUMMER BREAK

Hello there!

My favourite kind of summer day has always been one that starts with rain and then clears completely. There’s an exaggerated brightness to that kind of day. The kind of day when the sky flattens to a slate of blue, all the clouds erased. The sun’s rays bounce off puddles, which soon sizzle and vanish… and briefly, the grass holds sparkly water droplets.

I remember one such washed-clean day when a troop of kids from my neighbourhood in Niagara Falls headed off to the Municipal Pool. Municipal Pool was on Valley Way, a good twelve or so blocks from home: down Scott Street to Portage Road, left on Portage, first right, then all the way down to the end, walking parallel to Morrison Street where St. Mary’s School sat, empty and powerless. A gaggle of kids in a straggly line, we wore flip-flops and bathing suits. Colourful towels draped our shoulders, weighted in the corners by nickels tied securely, for popsicles after the swim. Of course, little sisters dragged their towels and got dirt and grass all over them. And every block or so, a couple of the older kids would suddenly surge forward on the wings of their towel-capes. Suddenly – a rainbow! A miracle of nature above the line of giant chestnut trees on Portage Road.

This month’s poem, “What’s Under the Surface,” was inspired by a summer afternoon along the Ottawa River. It celebrates slowing down in this all-too-brief season. May you have the opportunity to do just that!

Lee Ann