One Summer Afternoon

A pleasant line up in t-shirts and shorts at the Ice Cream window for swirled mango or strawberry ice cream cones; chocolate/orange

swirls, frosty milkshakes, or my sundae of vanilla ice cream with thick gooey salted caramel sauce. One at a time we took our frozen sweet relief to the little courtyard where elm trees, tall and gnarled, shaded us all in the thick humid air; tables of singles reading books, young couples unaware of the heat, children wanting more; the breeze off somewhere else, maybe down a back alley or cooling itself at the lake; melting ice cream confections ~ a sweet taste of cold.

“Cause a little bit of summer is what the whole year is about.”

~ John Mayer, Wildfire