NorthSouth

by Dawn Leas

In backyard gardens
we hide and seek . . .

blue wisteria,
full-bloom Magnolia.

I climb the fence like a boy.

        ready or not

                I jump
 
 
 
                picket catches
                my shoelace,
                and I’m falling–

Lucille finds me hanging
upside down

hair skimming ferns
        below. She tugs
at my shoelace, and

I somersault into the ferns,

        cool, damp

                Lucille lands
                behind me
                and the chase
                begins again–

around the weeping
willow, through honeysuckle.

We weave in and out of her mom’s
        bamboo garden,
        collapse on her porch swing.

                Faces streaked
                with dirt, we gulp
                lemonade, wipe
                our mouths on T-shirts.

Swinging slowly, our tennis shoes glide over
common ground.

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Dawn Leas is the director of admission at Wyoming Seminary Lower School in Forty Fort, PA. In a past life she was an advertising copywriter and freelancer whose work appeared in newspapers, journals, and newsletters. She holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Wilkes University. Her work has been published in gold wake press and in /Interstice./

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Back to Issue Four: Summer 2009