the long summer

we used to sit around
for hours
smoking weed and listening to whatever
new vinyl
we bought from tower records
down the street.
someone would
make a run to jiffy's sub
shop
for a steak and cheese,
maybe
a large pizza
with peperoni and mushrooms.

a case of Schlitz, was picked
up by someone with
a legal I.D.
a bottle of boones farm
apple wine too. strawberry hill.

they were long nights.
a lot of laughs.
but we were adrift, fatherless
for the most part.
the mothers holding it all
together with
low wage jobs.
still putting dinner on the table
for whoever might be home.

we were riding the soft wave
of the late 60's,
hoping or not hoping for a light
to go on,
for direction
of some sort.
meandering through classes
at the community college.
always looking for a girlfriend,
for a used car
that would start,

but we knew this couldn't last
forever,
we were bad for one another,
trapped
in a hazy world, on a strange
lifeboat, scared to jump and swim
off into the next world,
a world we weren't prepared for.