Waiting for Summer

The shallow end is my place,
I guarded it all summer.
And all winter cars came and went
Empty. No kids. A tease.
It's a long wait.
A few come, just to look, remember.
Or disappear into rooms.

Bright cold winter bathes me
In cold light and steely rain
Now sun.
They’ll be back
They’ll give me hugs, kicks, ride me
Talk to me. I’ll get another new name.

This shallow end
Too deep for some
They held a man down. At night
I saw it all. He lived. Just.
Sometimes I still hear it
But there will be more screams
And laughs and company
The wait is like eternity,
like forever and a day
Sun will come, and with it the kids
Now. In time. Soon.
Summer
will come
before this life
is done,
and time
is gone away.