Still Remember
/Sam Kealhofer
I still remember
runnin' thru the clothes lines
into neighbors back yards
like I didn't know better
chasin' them lightnin' bugs
wherever the wind
might've taken us—
chasin' after ‘em just for the thrill
of seein' that warm yellow hue
emanatin' from my cupped up hands—
just for a moment—
'fore realeasin' ‘em
back into that buzzin' summer air
like I had given birth to light itself—
and then we'd run back to where
we came from, 'fore
mean ol Mr johnson caught us
like he owned the whole world
and couldn't nobody have any fun in it
without his say so,
which he never gave—
and that's how I'd spend my summers
with the cute girl from down the lane
who wore her hair in pigtails—
'fore I knew anything 'bout love
or relationships
or sex
or the boys who lived behind me
who chased those same lightnin' bugs
just like we did—
'cept they'd catch ‘em and smash ‘em
into their arms
so that warm summer light
would blink just for a moment,
smeared across their skin
and then never return again—
Author’s Note: I was really happy to hear this poem was accepted for publication. I wrote it years ago and never did anything with it. But the older I get, the more fond of it I become. I wrote it while teaching dialect and BluesAin't No Mockin Bird by Toni Cade Bambara to my 10th grade English students. That's where the informal language was inspired. But what I love most about this poem, more so than any other I remember writing, is how I went to my desk and wrote it all in a single setting, no more than 15 minutes. I was totally engulfed in the creative spirit, and it just came out of me.
Sam Kealhofer is a Mississippi native who obtained a master's degree in English with a concentration in creative writing from Mississippi State University. His work focuses on setting, tone, and revitalizing a modern day romanticism. His work has been featured in Dunes Review, Peregrine Journal, Roanoke Review, as well as other online publications. He plans to pursue an MFA in future.
