My Visitor

STRAY birds of summer come to my window
to sing and fly away.
And yellow leaves of autumn,
which have no songs,
flutter and fall there with a sigh.

credit for poem

Poem by my daughter

Summer Break?

Every child in Iowa has detasseled some time in their lives
For the fortunate ones it was for a few hours
For the unlucky ones it's for the whole summer.

I wake up earlier than anyone should ever have to
Lube myself up with my SPF 3000
Splash on my supposed Bug repellent bug spray
Run my fingers through my hair while sprinting out the door.

Getting jammed onto a bug-infested bus
Practically lying across someone you don't know
Just to stay on the seat
Even though they smell of dirt and a plethora of different body sprays.

I meet Bri and we make fun of how "out of it" I am
Upon arriving at the field we "book it" as it's now known
We also "slow" it, yell at it, fall down on it, and sing as loud as possible.

Plucking or at least trying to pluck tassels
I find a tassel, I pull the tassel, I miss the tassel, I skip the tassel
Nightmares of the corpselike assistant, Tim murdering me tangle in my web of dreams
Only to have these almost confirmed the next morning.

We make up random nonsense words that everyone comes to use
We find out that a true friend will pick bugs out of your hair
That they will let everyone know when you faint on the machines
And that they won't mock you for screaming about a spider you thought you saw.

I also found out how unbelievely amazing air conditioning is

And how I am never detasseling again.

By Maddy