And We Painted the sky......

They dipped the socks into the paintbucket,
pudgy little fingers stirring wildly with
the spirit stick....
Making mud the color of a thousand eyes....
And
when we flipped the bucket upside down and a dozen psychedelic snakes slipped out....
Their laughter rocked my world.

And I knew.... 
This is the music the God's listen to....

The Sky and the clothesline on a sweet Summer evening, tye dying  with little ones at the river.....

Happy Hour

Half way home.
Half way between high noon and sunset.
Half way between the listening and daydreaming.

That's when we did it.
Banged a 90 degree turn off the face of the earth and drove straight to the Ocean.

And without another word,
we walked straight out into the wild green sea,
clothes billowing up around us like abandoned parachutes,
cheap lighters and bubblegum wrappers floating upward,
confetti in reverse.
Deeper and Deeper and Deeper...

Until we were
halfway between the sand and eternity...

The waves were plump and
lazy,
cotton sheets blowing on the line...
and the water was Margarita Green...
crystal clear,
and frothed in salt.

I could see my toes...
and swirls of sand dancing with the current.

And for just a moment,
I thought that I had never seen life any clearer.
Or been more free.....

One upon a time there was a place called Peace....

The sheets weren't sandy the first night. They were crisp and clean and not yet damp from the salt air and the mist machines just outside our door. The towels were Motel white and folded like starched flamingos walking the wire, not yet heaped on the floor, dumplin's in a pile. And we laughed....


On the 7th night I cried. And we clinked. And counted our change. And decided we could never go home.

So we stayed one more night.
One more sunrise.
One more round of tides....
And laughed....



Kimbies won a bucket of Domestics at Beer Bingo
and Skinny won a bucket of Choice....
We saddled our boogie boards and rode naked in the waves....
Each new wave, the Mother of all Waves, yankin' down our britches and unlacing our ties....
We fell...
In the waves, on the deck, over the sprinklers, out of chairs, up the stairs, and in love.
We danced...
Barefooted and bikini bottomed, in gypsy gowns to the ground, and in cowboy boots. With friends and with strangers. All by ourselves.



This morning, I leaned over the deck railing, toes to the edge, and blew her kisses. Thanked her. Wayward child at the train station. She knows I'll be back. And no matter what happens between now and then, when she sees me, she'll scoop me up in her beer foam arms and rock me back to peace........



"In the End, Peace Wins...."

"Thank you, Ocean".....

The long hot hippie summer.....

Plunk! It's almost daybreak and I toss the disco light into the lazy round river. The colors "pink on one", "green on three", "blue on two" play imaginary twister on the vinyl bottom. I'm sure the neighbors won't mind if I crank a little Rollin' Stones to greet the day.
.

It's pool party week-end..... Three Saturdays and three Sundays left before we run away to the beach. Three week-ends to fill with countdowns and count~me~in's and "don't count the beers". I reach over and nudge the yellow duck over the river's edge. Free, she floats away immediately, happy to be at home again....Tomorrow she'll be the gala host of the party.....toting watermelon slices and Michelobs.... Today, she'll just float.... a vinyl mermaid
basking in the sun....
.

It's summertime again.... towels are draped over the deck, damp from the evening dew, lazy and stretched, waiting to be kissed dry by the Friday sun. Georgia runs in crazy round-de-rounds, circle eights around the pool and the Make believe Ming Tree. I clink my coffee cup and smile....
.

Fridays are for dancin'.....
.

And summer's are for love.....