The Sensations of Summer by Jayannie C Rodriguez Rosario

As days melt into nights, swirls of sensations fill my still body.
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Feet ache, a gentle reminder of a shift full of laughter and a not so secret helping of ice cream that lingers on the tongue, somehow made sweeter as conversation turns from gentle whispers to a cacophony of lively banter.
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Pain etches into my eyes as they shut late into the night, a whisper of a day that I’d hoped would never end. At the back of eyelids sits lights that sparked and roared so intently they engraved themselves into me, carving a nook deep into the bone to take respite.
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Soft words shared echo in my ears, now a faint whisper. They danced and intertwined like long lost lovers, reluctant to part in the evening light. But a faint tingle rests on my lips, and a smile tugs at my mouth as a kiss goodbye replays in my mind, gentle and sweet the way soft taffy melts in your mouth, and lays on the tongue long after the fact.
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Rib cage throbs; the debates of the day settle against them, knocking against the edges like a pinball machine of sharp jabs and cutting conversation. I can still feel the coolness on my back, as I laid against soft leather, laughing reminiscent of jackals filling the room in its entirety.
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As days turn into nights, then day once more, summer will soon shift to autumn. The leaves will fall and lie still in the grass, yet the branches will ache in remembrance; the sensations will soon fade yet the moments they shared together in the hot sun and warm moonlight will stay forever carved into their being.

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Jayannie Rodriguez Rosario is a Pinkerton Academy graduate, and a rising freshman at the University of New Hampshire studying animal science. Although they plan on working toward becoming a veterinarian, writing is a passion of similar stature; they enjoy writing poetry and fiction; they hope to someday publish their works.
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