The Boys of Summer - Poem

   The boys of slimmer
   sprawl on the yard
   or on butterfly chairs
   at the corner of Warren and Market,
   taking their ease
   in the afternoon sun
   and smelling the smell of new grass.

   The philosopher Chuang Tzu
   has said: "You
   cannot speak of ice
   to an insect of summer--the
   creature of a season."

   The boys of summer
   are bare-footed,
   shirtless. They loll
   in the warmth of the sun.
   They play their guitars
   and they smoke their cigars.

   Chuang Tzu, clothed in ice,
   shakes his head.

COPYRIGHT 1997 Commonweal Foundation
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group