Shade Tree

Hot,
Like a late August
Shade tree
Southern Idaho afternoon.
Sipping iced drinks from colorful plastic patio chairs,
Kids leaping over spinning sprinklers
Dripping wet with desert laughter and sun–
Immersed in the innocent freedom of frivolous play–
Spirited blades of green grass stuck between their flighty toes,
Birds along the cedar fence cheering
Tree shadows obediently shifting
Below a painter's stroke of wispy cirrus clouds
Fading to stationary blue.

Image source