A Somewhat Passable Haiku Vaguely Related To The Summer

I have to tell you that these blogposts are actually part of a summer ELA project I have to do by answering prompts from this packet my The Teach gave me. Normally, I'd pick another, more interesting prompt to answer. But since I answered all of them too soon, I have to do this one about writing a poem about summer. Because I'm incredibly productive yet moderately lazy, I'm thinking about writing a Haiku, since they're pretty short.

With intense heat,
The sun's light pours down to Earth,
Leaving us sweaty.

There. I did my poem. Not my best work, but I can do better at telling a story with no particular syllable-based restrictions. I also can't write any good poems. Maybe I can write a good short story, but I don't consider myself "poetically talented."

I Never Climbed the Trees

Do you know what really peeves me? The fact that other kids had more fun than me during their childhood. I never got to do so many things that other kids do, like looking for weird bugs, organizing a club, being the dictator of my own made-up country which was just our backyard. I also never climbed onto the branches of any tree, which was kind of sad. There's this big evergreen you can spot from one of the windows in the bedrooms upstairs that I would've climbed, had I acknowledged its existence before I was ten. I've always wanted to go to where that tree is and climb it, even though I am twelve now and such behavior is not expected from me at this age, but I feel that I was missing out on a lot of experiences when I was younger and I want a chance to catch up on them.

A Sweaty, Overweight Day

Do you know how many blog posts I've opened with the words "I live in"? Despite the fact that it feels like more than enough, it seems to have become mandatory to start off with "I live in". I live near an estuary, perhaps one of the biggest known. (See? I changed things up a little, but not so much so it still seems like a monotonous opener. Still, I tried, right?) As previously stated, it is the Long Island Sound, and it starts near Connecticut and ends somewhere around New Jersey. Since estuaries are technically swamps, it results in this disgusting swampy feeling in the backyard that happens after a rainstorm on a hot day. I can only describe it with two words: fat and sweaty. Your sweat feels like warm water slowly trickling down your back, and there's so much of it that it surrounds you with this heavy aura of sweatiness. You begin to feel like a fat person after an indoor marathon in a gym at adequate room temperature. Even if your sweat glands produce small droplets like mine, you can still feel the sensation of sweat beads journeying down to your sweatpants (which absorb the warm sweat and make your underpants bunch). I never really felt that sweaty before the pool was installed, but maybe the pool made everything feel warmer by comparison.

The Summer Of Bayside

I live in an area of Bayside that is very near the sea. In fact, you can visit the local marina via a short drive on the Cross Island Parkway. The waves aren't so massive that you can hang ten on them, as we live near an estuary, Alley Pond. Since I live near a swamp, it gets pretty humid sometimes. And no, I'm not talking about the good kind of humidity that's slightly cool, I'm talking about the kind of humidity full of this warm, slimy sweat-inducing sensation that feels like taking a swim in the nearby swamp end of the Long Island Sound. Not that I've swam  there, just providing an uncomfortable-sounding example. In fact, you can get so hot that you can feel your sweat clinging to the design on your T-shirt. Most people in my area typically take a drive to Jones Beach, on the south end of Long Island, where the water is less thick and more salty, and there's actually sand instead of rocks that are hard to climb on. Me and my family never went there, likely because I haven't the patience to stay an hour in the furry inside of a 2008 Kia Sedona for forty-five minutes or more unless I picked the destination. So we decided to install a pool in our backyard. I kind of miss the old backyard, where you had more space to roam about and the neighbors actually got along with us. Still, there's no way to beat the heat outdoors other that the pool.

Prompt 4: The Air Conditioner

It's hot during the summer, especially when you live in a forested area, and especially after a rainy day. As the water is evaporating, you feel this disgusting warm-yet-moist swampiness. Said swampiness lingers inside and makes the wood feel soft, like you're stepping in a light puddle of some substance I can't find a name for. So I mostly spend my time inside my room, curtains pulled down, with the air conditioner on. My room is small, but not to the point where I feel that if the walls could talk, they'd say they were cramped. It feels like the smallest room in the house-save for the closets and bathrooms, of course. And small spaces tend to get hot without cooling. It used to belong to my sister, Gabi, before she moved into my old room next door. Back in her old room, she once had this AC with LED display, button-controlled temperature, and selectable modes. I was about six when I last saw it, and it was replaced by this somewhat smaller, slightly older AC with one knob and two switches (OFF-ON, LOW-HI) that tends to make a rattling noise when set to cool. Despite its age, clanking plastic, and melted appearance when viewed from outside, it can cool up a room fast. Even after leaving it off for three minutes or a little more does not get the goose flesh-inducing cold to go away, which I find impressive for an AC with somewhat bent slats that can barely fit in most bedroom windows. Still, I like to go outside, especially in near-skin-cancer-inducing sunlight. Oddly enough, I don't feel that much sweat.

Prompt 3: The Pool

In my previous post, I stated I lived in a seaside town with no beach. This became a real problem for my five-year-old self who wanted to visit, so instead of taking an hour-long trip to Jones Beach (which I wouldn't have the patience for and still don't), my father decided to install a pool in our backyard. In retrospect I don't think this was a good idea, as we used to run around in the back with the neighbors' kids. Our neighbor, Kike, still lived with his mom who didn't approve of our pool, and she said it was contaminated. In truth, it kind of was and still is, but with the cleaning agent chlorine which cleans up algae that might try to grow in the pool. I still have fond memories of the pool, and still swim in it today when the weather is good enough.

Prompt 2: The Sights Of Summer

I live in Bayside, a seaside town based on the Long Island Sound. It has everything other seaside areas typically have-a marina, saltwater, the scent of fish in the air-but instead of sand, we get sediment that could be used as building material. Despite the lack of sand, there is a very beautiful sky near seaside areas, especially Bayside. When you wake up to clear weather at somewhere around five AM, you can see the warm autumn-tinged sky contrasting with the faint blue of the day ahead. On a much more ideal time to wake up, say, 8:30 AM, you can see a very blue sky with clouds rolling ahead. During noon you can sometimes spot a beautiful array of clouds that look like puffs of smoke set across a grid. And sometimes, you can witness a sunset where you can see the sun's rays jutting out like stripes painted in sunlight across the horizon.