Because You Asked Me, I Will
(I was going to do it anyway…)
I don’t know how to do this. But if you’ll hold my hand, I’ll take a step.
She clutched the warm hand that was always there, Smiled up at the face that loved her, started first venture Into that hugest of bathtubs, England a far-off, dusky blue promise Tentative feet stepping into sparkling cold on shifting pebbled sand, Surprised gasp at slap of wave over ankles, grabbing the warm hand, And jumping up over the next wave, exulting in this new dance she learned.
Later shorelines held new hands, novel delights, and weightless hours with Dashes into sparkling cold, explorer adventures, impish joy When the reliable bottom fell away and she bobbed, floated, swam free Of studies, responsibilities, worries yielding to that hugest of blue. There, drifting in endless, she gazed up at fathomless blue and Promised the sky that she would soar, swoop, and rise triumphant
Roaring her freedom song for everyone to join a celebration of life Starting with that first floating in warm safe embrace Transformed to wobbling steps, later to stride, and later splashing revel.
Starting with the prompt “let freedom ring” from Kenneth Johnson, I was transported to a lifetime near the water, endless hours of floating and emerging salt-grimed and delirious with joy.
That was little kid freedom with family, friends, days in sun and sand with nowhere else to be, nothing else to do but raise my face to the sky and roar exhilaration. It is a pleasure to this day to watch waves, all the same and all different, requiring careful inattention to nothing but the shimmering water.
Here is the prompt that started it all by Martin Rushton: The Never-Ending Poem.
From Kenneth Johnson comes this story and his kind invitation to play:
In turn, I invite these Medium poets to play if they would like (and I sure hope that they do), tagging me and enjoying what comes with the prompt “Summer Afternoon.” If the prompt moves you, play — or pass it on….: Elle Rogers, E. Scott Alighieri, Paula Dotson Frew, Vivienne Teh, Sylvia Wohlfarth, Priyanka Srivastava, Bradley J Nordell, Jessica Lee McMillan, Steve Hawkins, Anna Rozwadowska.
And? Even if you weren’t specifically named, know that the world needs your story, your poetry, your summer afternoon thoughts….Think them, write them, send them on their merry way….
