Summer Is a City by Ceridwen Hall

I find myself in
again and again
ready to turn left
at the intersection
where I learned left turns
listening to a song
from those same late early years
singing along half wrong
learning or remembering
—remembering learning—the lyrics
as my car climbs a familiar road
my hands not so much steering
as rereading this hill: the sameness of the slope
and the humidity, as if seasons stay put
and we keep visiting them, as if melodies
and dashboards were time-travelling machines

in the silence between songs, I am here

at the stop sign (another left)
surrounded by green and memory
between the playground and the swim club
between the library and home
beneath the blue June sky
 
and despite the renovations
everything seems just as it was
only more so—the insects louder, the leaves denser
—the ghost breeze swaddling
all the years between then and then compressed
compressed in now, turning again

as I learn to remember learning
the way home, the way through
this growth and warmth, this summer


Ceridwen Hall is a poet and book coach. She helps poets and novelists plan, create, and revise compelling manuscripts with one-on-one coaching and inspiring feedback. She holds a PhD from the University of Utah and is the author of two chapbooks: Automotive (Finishing Line Press) and Excursions (Train Wreck Press). Her work has appeared in TriQuarterly, Pembroke Magazine, Tar River Poetry, The Cincinnati Review, and other journals. You can find her at www.ceridwenhall.com.