mid-summer georgia evening

the breeze tonight is warm and gentle. it carries spring in ripples and bounds. passing along courtyards and houses lining a country road. somewhere children are playing in the streets. summer nightfall is fast approaching full of gnats and mosquitos, fireflies and fireworks. there is a certain cooling charm to a mid-summer georgia evening. just as the world starts to forget its heat. when the slow drawl of blue-eyed southern girls meets sweet tea, and passion and intrigue and unrivaled beauty flow with the sweetness of wild honeysucle. we have a comanding presence. we have a sway and a flirtatious air. we and our lovers laid out under countess stars on blankets in hay fields or patches of sweet grass or the banks of the wadley river. make love outdoors, on the beach, in the peach grove, on the 11th green in south carolina. we sparkle like cherry coke. there is nothing in this world like a southern girl's summer love. baseball and concerts, kissing in the rain. the night air swirling around in chlorine and alcohol. the wind is singing the scent of strawberries and cake. the shortness of breath, the humidity, the sight of a debutante swept up in a world of antibellum beauty. my mind fades to memories of drunken abandon after senior year. the taste of salt and rum. laughing in the glow of the affluent elite. finding the ocean, the marsh, the lowcountry. back to country pickups and hidden bonfire parties. back to discovery. nothing stagnant. back to climbing trees, eating watermellon, and drinking wine. back to sleeping on the roof of emily's pool house. back to night fishing on the creek. back to stolen kisses in parking lots and the sticky hot air of downtown block parties. back to the nights when i was infatuating and everything the boys ever wanted. tonight is much like those nights. there is a shift in my emotion. a longing and a wonder brought on by cream soda, sparklers, and near-dark picninc dinners on the steps of nieghborhood houses. the summer is coming strong, my time of power, mystery, and peace. time to be everything you can't take your eyes off of.