Games Now and Then     August 22, 2009

summer rain

sat brooding over far horizon

waiting, musing, calculating

its moodiness distant thunder

lulling swimmers and golfers

greying clouds giving false blessing

short reprieve from sweltering sticky heat

one more lap in child packed pool

one more hole chased by afternoon foursome

kerack

lightening cymbal smacks ears

lifeguard's whistle commands

glistening bodies shoot from frothing pool

high fives passed as boldest ones dash toward porch

careening golf cart slews past hole two, heading in

dry clubhouse beckoning indignant golfers

kerack

swimmers watch in gleeful awe

wind making twisting waves on their pool

duffers groaning with time garnered knowledge

storm furies jump upon them

wind making cart braces sing

four heads craning behind to see

purple rain curtain undulating

suddenly God's waterbed springs a leak

no not a leak but a sky-sized rend

cold rain soaking all four men

shivering they brake cart

complaining of game not played through

plucking at soaked clothes clinging

oldest begins to laugh, remembering

cousin Jim's swimming hole

innocent disregard when summer lightening cracked

he laughs again, startling disgruntled friends

for he can see grandson

peering from poolside porch

miming his delight that grandpa is wet too

summer rain

pulls tattered cloud skirt past far horizon

winds having repaired God's waterbed tear

swimmers dive back into pool

golfers shrug embarrassed, turn cart back

return to hole five to play again