Summer Stench

Sickly sweet children run circles like flies above the day-old dishes in the sink, worn down by the sticky air and hot concrete tiles, fueled by joys of childhood and lemonade. Sally, George, Edward, and Jim. Sand in their mouths and spaghetti sauce on their shirts. Round and round the tree they played, one fell down and broke his neck. Tarmac stained red, but red like lollipops, not blood right? 

Rust covered monkey bars and creaky merry-go-rounds with the squealing children on them. Their minds filled with chocolate-covered dreams with horrors inside. Fathers who drink and mothers who wail become static to their ears, the acid bright television screens take the spotlight. Sally, Edward and Jim and their friends from the TV. Lakes with dragonflies and families dreaming the American dream. Naked little bodies splishing and splashing in the yucky murky waters. But one goes too far, but just for a dive. Two days later she comes up for air. But if she’s a mermaid where’s her tail?

Family dinners of macaroni and cheese, spent with Conan on screen, all blend into one another. Their scooters with worn-out tiers rattle down the street past the boys who call them a word mom didn’t like, to tree houses with fairy lights, cereal boxes tucked away, and walls that smell of innocence. Edward and Jim, now knights from fairytales who touch one another. with swords of curiosity and wonder clutched in their stubby hands with fingernails covered in dirt. The eighteen marbles in their pockets weigh them down, for what if they were to float away with their long lost dreams. Blue marbles, red marbles, and clear ones too. But a blue one went missing down Jims' throat. He tried to get it out but he went to bed instead. They got the marble out but he still slept. But why did Jim turn the marble red?

Roshitha "Rosh" Lukose is a senior in high school looking through a kaleidoscope that is life and trying to make sense of the various colours that make up the world around her. She makes the best chai ever and dreams of owning a Victorian mansion and living in it with a magician named Tyler. But for now she sips her chai and writes mediocre poetry.