"Girls in their Summer Dresses"
Jack Ledbetter
Girls in Their Summer Dresses
Girls in their summer dresses,
like drowsy swans upon a pond
turning their heads as we walk by,
unfold their legs and together sigh
at tiny men in each round eye.
Their dresses billow up and out
like feathers on a sudden breeze,
showing legs and lovely knees,
and every passing man undresses
all the girls in summer dresses
turning their heads as we pass by,
little men in each bright eye.
When it’s dark, or nearly so,
and summer girls rise to go,
we circle faster round and round
following their shadows across the ground
and over the hill and out of sight
into memory-enhancing night,
happy to be passing by,
tiny men in each round eye,
and mindful of what each dress caresses,
not a man but secretly blesses
summer girls in their summer dresses.
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