sweat, swim, and rain

a kind of poem about late June and a trip to the pool at my parents’ house

Summer has arrived like the drip of a faucet, like cool-green hydrangeas and lightning strike thunder and the stream of sweat that runs down my back.

I leave the city and take trains out of Brooklyn until I’m curving down narrow roads to the old stone walls of home.

With the hot breath of June down my neck I greet the house I grew up in. I like that it, too, has dressed for the occasion. Every bush is alive from the steadiness of rain.

A red door opens. The full thrum of chatter swells and marches itself up and down the stairs. We pile shoes by the door.

In my tote bag: one clementine, one book, a change of underwear, a swimsuit, and this very journal. Loose change and a tampon. Lip gloss and pens.

Back out in the sun we slap our bodies with lotion. In the city summer air is viscous, thick like heavy cream, but out here it is light as spun sugar.

A breeze pushes me through the trees, out to the pool with the river stone steps.

At the edge of the pool I let legs touch water, then chest, and one two three dunk. Summer seeps into your skin this way, it is a deep blue drench.

It is the function of summer to stay too long. Sweat beads on my upper lip, citrus sticks to my palms. I’m glad to let something wash over me again.

June has been grey, dark and storming. Even on this afternoon, with light filtered through clouds, we are hit with showers. Rolls of thunder crack glow sticks across the sky.

Out of the water again I lounge in the faint scent of chlorine. Damp towels, damp hair, a stomach full of sliced tomato.

I think if anything wonderful happens today it will be that feeling, the one of water. Sweat and then swim and then rain. An ice cube I run down my leg and then feed to my dog.

I dry myself out on the train ride home, and exit the subway six hours later, welcomed back to Brooklyn with the gentle fall of rain.

Wet.

xo,

Julianna

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In case you missed keepsake:

• We’re becoming the bloom this summer, and our theme for June is ‘Exploration’.

• Our sixth edition club keepsake is out, and we are now accepting submissions to the bulletin board for the July edition.

• 10 prompts to kill your writer’s block

• In the spirit of unblocking the brain: I posted some barely edited fiction called faking it.

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