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| A summer well spent |
We didn't know then what a cliche it was
but the summer seemed full of possibility
Finally, we were free agents let loose
to do whatever we could find worth doing
Away from all the normal kids with their
normal families, names, and crosses
we could just be us
I had never been so enamored with anyone
Sixty sleepless sleepovers later and I still
had hundreds of questions for you
We could never seem to talk enough
your mother said we laughed too much
and we'd both seen each other cry
When we tired of our trips to the park
and preteen movie marathons
we took to a better reality
We read through Harry Potter books
slouched against your closet walls
cloaked in clothes hung overhead
At school, preacher's kids had glared at us:
two hell-bound Hermione types
but now it was summer
We could brush up on our spells all afternoon
ever perfecting our British accents
We could never be foreign enough
In preparation for Fall, we even invented
our very own written language
Inspired by hieroglyphics, we ensured
that none of the locals would ever
really know us…
at least not by our notes
The overall effect of the post is so perfectly melancholy and nostalgic. It truly takes the reader all the way back to a specific and relatable moment in their own lifetime and it's impossible not to connect with. There are such great textual nuances, "Sixty sleepless sleepovers" and "hell-bound Hermione types" that make the reader think of an exact person or time when they had those same thoughts. The Harry Potter references are also much appreciated, as most people have read the books, and while it mentions the novel, it refuses to focus on it, taking the attention back to the author. The ambiguous "we" that dominates most of the text also places another person in the mind of the reader, making them think of their other person that they had during their preteen years.
ReplyDeleteThe photo, a picture of Hogwarts castle, is one of the less subtle references to the book series, and although very relevant to the post, it is truly the text which allows the picture to shine. There is not too much of a story behind the building, and it leaves a little something, whether it be nature, people, characters, to be desired.
As the text is broken up, the reader is able to catch snippets, somewhat like photographs in the author's memory. It is a writing/blogging style not commonly used, and is refreshing for the reader. At first, the slight lack of punctuation was, for me personally, somewhat distracting. However, once the text truly began to outline its own story, the punctuation became almost unnecessary.
The thing which stands out the most about the text is the verb choice. The vocabulary seems to perfectly reflect the words that describe each situation perfectly, yet a middle schooler would not have been able to think of them in that time. It's as if, only in looking back upon that summer as a college student are you able to accurately encompass the exact feelings that required such delicate feelings and choice words. For example, the "stanza" about reading the Harry Potter books: "slouched against your closet walls/cloaked in clothes hung overhead" These are not words that a 12-year-old would have used to describe this situation, but it is visible to the reader in the precision of the language that was used.