December In June Lyrics

Pastel hot air balloons

Rising across blue tapestry

Skinny lighted paths descend

Connecting grass and flowers and trees and me

To heavenly routes

Sweat drops like summer rain

Off my chin and beads on my arm and leg hairs

As if my skin is waterproof

A soupy air is breathed out of the ground

Filling my lungs with water-pocketed breath

And the snow falls

The cottonwood trees release floating seed

Like dandelion heads rolling in the warm breeze

They fill the skyline and flow

Like a waterfall of clouds

Pouring out of the blue river of the sky

Pouring down on my salty sticky body

As I lay out trying to brown my already brown body

More golden please

I look up at the cotton ball filled sky

And remember seeing a similar scene

Early morning

I was seven

Sleeping in the living room of Tia Esther's house

On a maroon couch with thick pillows

The couch was located under a bay window

The curtains were drawn open

And a gray sunrise crept through the glass

And blanketed the room

Pedrito, mira. Wake up. It's snowing

My tia declared in whispering tones

I woke

Rubbed eyes

Stood on the couch

And looked out the window

At the front lawn

And the palm tree

And the chain link fence

The black topped road

And the neighbor's houses

And the mountains

And the sky

All were peppered white and gray

Like a static television channel

Snow, Pedrito. It's snow

Tia Esther said

As she gave me my jacket

And told me to get dressed

We went outside and I marveled with wide eyes

Blinking snowflakes

As I watched her limp out onto the white lawn

Tia Esther contracted polio before her inoculation

Shortening one of her legs

I hesitatingly stepped on and through

The thin carpet of white

She told me it only snowed

Once every seven years in Vegas

And I was lucky to see it

Come on, Pedrito

Help me roll the snow together

Lucky?

Lucky was not what I felt

But rolling and packing and collecting

Stuffed hands of snow

Helped me forget why I was at Tia Esther's

Mom and Dad were divorcing

Dad didn't want me

And Mom was too distraught to care for me

So for a while I slept on Tia Esther's couch

After collecting all of the snow on the lawn

A lopsided three tiered tower of oblong snowballs

Leaned to its side

Kind of like Tia Esther when she walked

She went into the house and came out with

A Las Vegas Star's baseball cap

A rainbow colored scarf

And olives

She created his face and told me to find sticks for his arms

I found some palm tree leaves instead

We stood back and smiled at our sculpture

The white midget leaned to his right

And stood in the middle of the green lawn

Staring out

And feeling wary of his new surroundings

No shelter from the world

No one to wipe his snowman tears away

Or to warm him with hugs of committed love

No connection with anyone

He was the lone snowman of the neighborhood

The falling snow slowed as the sun rose higher

I looked up

And let the last flakes of the seven year miracle fall on me

Merry Christmas, Pedrito

Merry Christmas

Now

Today

I remember that little boy

Alone

Afraid

Like that snowman

And I still am looking up

Waiting for another miracle to fall on me