The Frist Day of Fall

The first day of fall is this week, this is my favorite time of the year, I love the cool nights the changing tree colors. Fall brings a new energy after the lazy days of summer. Fall brings the start of school. With that in mind I have found another of my late brother-in-laws poems on his summer thoughts that I would like to share.

WILD STRAWBERRIES

Bygone days of summertime

Childhood fantasies fulfilled,

I chased you then you chased me

"Til summer's song was stilled.

Lazy afternoons by the swimming hole

Comparing bellybuttons under a cloudless sky,

Mine was an inny-yours an outty

So I teased you to make you cry.

We ate green apples by the pocketful

Until we'd moan and groan,

We climbed into trees to tell our secrets

Insuring we'd be alone.

We washed down wild strawberries

With water from the garden hose.

Created mudpuddles with it's overflow

Toes muddily massaging toes.

We ran screaming through the lawn sprinkler

Or holding hands we rolled down hills,

Every day was a new adventure

Every day was filled with thrills.

With out event the season changed

Our glorious summer had quickly passed.

We both started school that fall

Vowing our friendship would always last.

But you discovered other little girls

And I became one of the boys.

Never again were we to be equals

We'd lost one of childhood's joys.

Jack A. Archambault

1949--2007