The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: HUMMING

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above. This month's prompts include: hospital, hotel, humming, ice-skating, illness, kitchen table, knife, laundry, library, lunch.

HUMMING

The Sound of Summer is a Hum

It starts with Mama

at her sewing machine,

stitching seams

in summer dresses
for Ms. Judy

moves to the library's

florescent overhead

lights as I sit

on the ABC rug,

reading about horses

slips past the door

from the driveway

as my brothers

circle the go-kart

again and again,

wheels spinning

Gulf coast sugar-sand

before settling

in Granddaddy's garden

where bees swarm

the tomato blossoms

and corn fattens

inside the shuck,

green green green

until finally – soon! –

yellow-kerneled ears

pop out to say,

hello, June!

- Irene Latham