From the Lovin' Spoonful song, "Summer in the City"...

Think summer......are you there? Nw here are my reflections on Five words from that song...


1. rooftop
The house of my childhood...from the Mimosa tree, one could gain access to the roof...a black sea of steep shingles. Hot, really hot....but...because of his fear of heights....FREEDOM from BigBro...and if I wasn't such a prissy boy about the heat (a rare event)...an excellent place from which to launch Mimosa seed pods at unsuspecting villagers.

2. gritty
My swim trunks at the beach. This is what I hated, hated, hated about the beach...sand in shoes, in crotches, in other unmentionable places. Funny how today it doesn't bother me much at all. I really was a pretty prissy kid.

3. hot town (yeah, I know, it's two words)
Easy. Bayou City. There were many summer days as a shyster that I would go from my air conditioned house into my attached garage, get in my air conditioned car, drive to my underground parking, walk through air conditioned tunnels to my office building and my air conditioned office...get lunch at a tunnel restaurant...and return home similarly...never letting the sun fall naturally upon my face, never breathing unconditioned air other than in the garages...That's how you conquer hot town...by becoming like a moon man or space traveler...hermetically sealed.

4. night
Sound. I've spent the last 5 nights with the windows open, cool enough to sleep, though I wake to slightly sweaty sheets....but with the windows open...proof that the city never sleeps...planes, cars, even car radios at 2 and 3 am. Sirens...dumpster-emptying garbage trucks...a yapping dog...a distant car alarm...NEVER...EVER...silent...and somehow...comforting.

5. dance
Elusive, awkward gesticulations, choreographed discomfort, a reminder of a mind and voice that speak fluent rhythm and a body that loses something in the translation....but witnessed in others...a celebration of corporeal existence...a frenzied alleluia to sensual created-ness...