Each time my mother looked out over the black driveway
    She called, “Stop running!” and return to the ponk-ponk of her stitching.
    We’d stop and wait for her to look back down at her baby-blue blouse
    And dart after each other again.
    Your mother would scribble her red pen across a writing
    Rejecting a line of imagery, saying
    “Patty, let them run.”
    Cerulean hoops encircled our hips
    Swinging rhythmically about overalls and lemon-yellow tee-shirts.
    Easy smiles reached our lips
    Laughter echoed in the thick lilac air.
    What happened to those green summer days?
    They evaporated with our childhood.

<3 Rufu