Pastorale Poem by Brent Kincaid

My memories are like leaves
The sunlight shining through
Giving them a luminescence
They never really knew
In life as flakes of trees
In noonday sunshine.
These, my summer songs;
These memories are mine.

It was yesterday when I flew
My legs pumping like a race,
The wind at my back, teasing
Blowing hair across my face.
Going so fast, I tumbled
And rolled picking up speed
The afternoon, this hill,
This time my only need.

Summertime was no school
And clothing, shorts and shirts.
No slacks or oxfords for boys
For girls, no blouses or skirts;
We felt we had forever
To laugh and play and swim.
Thought of coming September
Too far away, too grim.

Baseball and picnics happened
Because it stayed light until nine.
Too hot for cooking dinner?
Cold cuts fed us just fine.
And in this patchwork quilt
Of memories I’d hate to lose
We were having our adventures,
Musketeers without our shoes.

And oh, those timeless hours
Of laughing neighborhood friends.
Delightful summer showers
And sunshine without end
So we could find surging horses
In the clouds up in the sky,
Beneath that dappled canopy
In heaven’s watchful eye.