Cinquain #21

Summer in

Denver, Colorado’s afternoons couldn’t

Be more specific. Lifeguards blew their

Whistles and we were ordered out of water

And poof!

A thunderstorm.

Us under the trampolines

Learning how to flirt or playing

Jacks, listening to the pounding rain, possibly hail

Miracles that

The frames

Didn’t attract lightning, honestly.

After 15 minutes the rain stopped.

Rainbows fluttered East, sometimes with a few stray

Raindrops in

Sunshine. We

Had no sunscreen to

Put on, zero floaties except Styrofoam

Boards and lifesaver donuts and the pool was

Huge and

Fully integrated

In 1977, no parents

To be seen. It was the

World to us. Waiting in line for the

High dive.