Summer Camp
Josh Lefkowitz
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The sound of gravel beneath our feet.
A forest scent of pine and rain.
Every day its own canteen,
filled to the brim with activity.
Portaging a red canoe.
Dipping grilled cheese into tomato soup.
Tie-dying t-shirts for the talent show.
Getting better at tetherball.
Wondering if she likes you back.
Running to avoid the pointed snap
of a counselor’s rat-tailed towel.
Slowly becoming an individual
with interests, affinities, mystery.
Turns out I don’t like heights,
but I love being near the lake.
The in-between hours just as important.
Poker at the picnic tables.
Dirty jokes telephoned from bunk to bunk.
How many grapes can you fit in your mouth?
Can you do it again without laughing?
Sneaking glances during co-ed beach,
examining one another with wonder from afar.
Then, when older, closer.
Gathering tinder and kindling.
The campfire, and the songs sung around it.
I learned to harmonize there,
snug in a hand-me-down sleeping bag
under a canopy of trees
and a dark ceiling of stars
which echoed the campers below,
each one pulsing with infinite possibility.
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Josh Lefkowitz was born and raised in metro Detroit, and received an Avery Hopwood Award for Poetry at the University of Michigan. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times, Washington Square Review, Electric Literature, Rattle, and many other places. He currently lives in Boulder, Colorado.
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Posted in Retro Summer and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Poetry