Writing Challenge

Summer

An Abecedarian poem of academic interest

All summer long, the kids play outside Bathed in the sun’s rays Captivated by the endless possibilities for adventure Daunted not, by the impending prison of classroom come fall Elevated in spirit, buoyed in imagination Finding stories lurking behind every bush Gangsters make off with loot Hombres rustle cattle Imagination knows no bounds Jump ropes twirl in the park Kickball games spontaneously start in a vacant lot Laughter is a language of its own Moms and dads left to their boring jobs No essays demanded; fractions remain unsolved Ongoing freedom, seems like it will last forever Perhaps fall will never arrive, summer will endure Quickly, however, the daylight begins to fade sooner each evening Rumors about Mrs. Smith, the new teacher, begin to swirl about Strict and mean, certainly the worst ever Time speeds up, only a few days of freedom left Untimely shopping trips for “school clothes” interrupt the flow of days Visions of sitting still for hours fill young minds Weariness begins to invade, the sentence inescapable Xilinous brains replace those so recently perspicacious Youthful exuberance cedes to tedium Zombies, impatiently awaiting the zephyr of next summer’s dawn

Thank you Desiree Driesenaar for tagging me in this challenge, as my general approach to poetry is that I only do it when goaded into it. Actually, I may have to begin to change my outlook and write some when not actually being called out to do so. I did enjoy creating this one.

To the other tagged poets, Martine Weber Dr John Rose Susannah MacKinnie Tapan Avasthi Arjan Tupan Marty de Jonge Jean Carfantan Tamela Handie Eli Snow Shawn Forno Kim McKinney Kavya Suzanne Mondoux Jalyn Folston Bob Jasper Tyrone Kidney Somsubhra Banerjee Jay Sizemore Akansha Priyadarshani and Charlotte Zobeir Ali, I shall eagerly await being tagged so I can read yours.

If you like this, you might like some of my other recent writing, including my July daily roundup of writing challenges:

And a recent response to a prior challenge:

And this blast from the past:

Timothy Key spent over 26 years in the fire service as a firefighter/paramedic and various fire chief management roles. He firmly believes that bad managers destroy more than companies, and good managers create a passion that is contagious. Compassion, grace and gratitude drive the world; or at least they should. Follow me on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and join the mail list.