Spilling Warm Lemonade

“Spilling Warm Lemonade" was published in Tarnished Trophies (Black Moss Press, 2014).

Debbie Okun Hill is currently on tour with her first trade book Tarnished Trophies, a collection of “cheers and tears, light and shadowed” sports themed poems recently released by Black Moss Press. She is Past President of The Ontario Poetry Society, a member of The League of Canadian Poets and the Writers’ Union of Canada and is a former communications specialist with Fanshawe College, Lakehead University, and The Winnipeg Art Gallery. To date, over 285 of her poems have been published in such Canadian publications as Descant, Existere, The Literary Review of Canada, Other Voices, Vallum, and The Windsor Review.Her literary blog appears on her website Kites without Strings.

I remember sinking
soft slow slide
deep in summer’s
webbed chair
the way it cushioned
made crisscross imprints
on the back of my thighs
my legs dangling
toes slipping in
cool pool water
your blank stare
distorting your reflection

You were angry that day
spilling your warm lemonade
not saying a word
kicking your thoughts
against wooden fence
hot sun blanketing
blistering your shoulders
the blue faces of
forget-me-nots
shriveled and curled brown

You had forgotten
your favorite sport
the way you swam laps
first your breast stroke
the steady up and down rhythm
your twisted turn, then
a smooth glide off pool wall
your fluttering fin feet
against nature’s current

Instead you kept asking
about your lemonade
as your memories spilled
out sticky and thick
like a fog over your empty deck.