My Favorite Season

 

It’s my belief that the season we are born in is the season we love the most. 

That holds so for me, I am born in the beginning of fall when the air finally changes from hot as an oven to cool as a Canadian jet stream.  

Today happens to be the second calendar day of fall and it is sixty-three degrees and tonight it will be fifty-three degrees.  

Hugging Teddy Bear time,  

Snuggle and cover my head with a blanket time, 

Darker earlier time, 

Sweater and cocoa time, 

If we are lucky, falling in love time, 

Holding hands time, 

Changing colors and falling leaves time, 

Halloween, black cat and pumpkin times. 

There is no better time than now time. September, October, November time. 

I can hear the wind……Whoosh……………………. 

Georgia

Natalie the Jellyfish

 

There once was a jellyfish named Natalie 

She swam through the ocean so happily 

So sweet she was, brave she was 

Until one day she noticed some flaws 

Her tentacles were pink, not like her friends in the deep 

Unbeknownst to her, her crown was striped brown 

Oh no she can’t go to town, the fishy's will think she looks like a clown.  

She wanted to take a leap  

Into the inky black eternal sleep. 

Who can she go to, who can explain? 

Who she is and why is she such a strange Mary Jane 

After searching for days 

As luck would have it there were no delays 

An elder jellyfish came bopping along  

like popcorn banging on a big green gong. 

Singing a folk song all the day long 

It went like this: 

Here in the ocean we don’t all look alike 

Some are rainbow, some are white. 

Be happy with your colors  

You’re cool the way you are 

You’re wonderful and perfect just like a star. 

Now Natalie the jellyfish started to cry 

Realizing she had been too hard on herself and not knowing why. 

She vowed to herself right then and there 

No more unhappiness 

I’m super as I am rare. 

No more will I cry, no more will I wonder 

I know I am complete and I will shout it like thunder. 

Natalie the jellyfish swam away 

Delighted at her newfound freedom. 

She swam the ocean deep in a new kind of play 

She was back to herself just sweet as can be 

Happy again in the deep blue sea. 

Georgia P

Hot, Hot, Hot

 

The hot steamy tropical climes of South Florida in the summer are not enjoyable to everyone, but this quiet subtropical season has a steamy silver lining. The usual morning greetings and small talk can be dispensed with as I am all alone. Early each morning Edwardo sings me back to consciousness as I am plucked rudely from the arms of Morpheus. Edwardo is my resident song bird and he serenades me from a palm tree having adopted me as his human charge. I have never heard a more beautiful serenade at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, or on Broadway.

It is still cool and misty outside, as I head over to the outside pool’s shower for the required rinse off before my plunge. I believe it is the seventh commandment on the long list of commandments brought down from the Mount by the Co-op Board. They are big on rules in South Florida, like the laundry room schedule on which I am commanded to wash my clothing on Thursday mornings from 8am to 11 am. I am free to scoff at these rules now while the complex is abandoned.

The smooth, blue glasslike surface of the pool parts as I pierce its membrane diving deep into the abyss. It is very refreshing and I am completely alone as most Northerners have left Florida well before the dog days of summer, that sleepy, breathless, baking season when Florida presses pause. With no small talk or polite niceties to hamper my morning swim it is refreshing and therapeutic.

A green lizard has stopped by to bask in the sun. We are on eye level about two feet apart and neither of us is impressed with their newfound companion. I watch him as the little sun worshipper limbers up warming his blood and squinting his eyes in the rays of the smoldering summer sun.

With my swim over I head across the street to Officer Scott A. Winters Memorial Park. I pick up my copy of the Pompano Pelican, a Pennysaver publication where diners and restaurants that have decided to stay open during the summer months compete for the remaining business, offering reduced prices and early bird specials. Some merchants sweeten the deal with a cut-out coupon for a free continental breakfast or even a full breakfast depending on the amount of money spent for dinner. The park is on the inter- coastal where the ocean hugs the coast flowing between the mainland and the barrier islands such as the one I am on. I sit down on one of the benches and watch the occasional boat pass by on its way out to the ocean. It is quiet this morning and any meandering manatees need not worry about speed boats slicing through the waters. A brown pelican nods to the resident iguana; they are old acquaintances.

 

Back at home, I have opened all the windows facing west to the intercostal and east towards the ocean a block away, causing a cool gentle breeze to flow through the apartment. By 11am the heat will set in and South Florida will be a sweltering oven till about 3 pm. With all windows closed, the air conditioners of the few remaining residents will hum along, keeping their owners comfortable until the summer sun relents and a cooler evening returns.

 

                                                                             Jim- August 22’