in this heat wave

thinking back to the time

when i decided to

slip ‘n slide with my daughters

waited my turn

zoomed up to it

head first, arms ahead

ready to slide for miles

balked at the last second

backside first, head followed

slammin’ instead of slidin’

 didn’t end up cooled down and filled with joy

did end up concussed and filled with regrets.

—

“you always say, ‘i’ll quit when i start to slide,’ and then one morning you wake up and realize you’ve done slid.”

-sugar ray robinson (american professional boxing champion)