Quiet
Prompt #1: August is hot, humid and slow in the Midwest. It reminds me to relax and take things easy. Write about the things you like to do on a lazy end-of-summer day.
Prompt #2: Cicadas’ singing instantly reminds me that summer is coming to a close. Have you done everything you had hoped to do this summer? If not, there’s still time!
Prompt #3: Journal about what your childhood summers looked like. Feel it. Smell it. Taste it. Hear it. Do you miss those days? Why? Give lots of details.
My Journal Page
Journal Response: Prompt #3
“If I see you, I’ll put you to work.” -my mother
My siblings and I took my mother’s words to heart. We created forts out of the brush along our neighbors’ “forest.” Ate unripened pears, and mulberries stained our fingers. We climbed the shadow of our pitched garage, perfectly pointed on the warm grass. We rode bikes around the block and through the church parking lot. Stopped ice cream trucks and sat on the back steps, licking the cardboard sides of a popsicle. We raced each other to the way, way back fence. If we were lucky, we’d get to jump through the sprinkler until we were covered in grass, and the grass was spongy. Cardinals called out in funny cadences while blue jays demanded to be heard. Butterflies danced on the zinnias I planted outside my mothers garden. Mourning doves cooed as the sun fell and the yard grew dark. We were scared of the bats. We slept well continuing the stories we told ourselves under the summer sun.