THE JUMPING ROPE QUEENS IN FINGERPAINT GREEN

we drank the summer up like orange soda,

orangeade, I'm in the shade

with an ice cream spade

and its cherry vanilla all

up at the villa for my sister and I

and we're too little

to eat peanut brittle

or sip some coffee

so we settle for toffee

in little bits

and lots of fizz

you know how it is

in the coke that's floats

on the fourth of july

when we play I spy

and lots of things

and the zither that sings

about diamond rings

and mockingbirds

and have you heard

I'm the jumping rope queen

in all of my dreams

and the dust flies high

till it coats the sky

like the wizard of Oz

when the cyclone came

in our Mary Jane's

(patent leather shoes)

we'll travel there

to gather news

and have room to spare

for another summer 

that's fingerpaint green

as my mother would say

le creme de la cream.

mary angela douglass 28 september 2022;21 february 2023