I hate to break it to you, but summer — with its sunny-skied promises of pools and picnics and plenty of days to laze around — will soon come to an end. Depending on where you live, back-to-school season might be a mere week away or a full month from arriving. Still, it’s coming. You can tell from all the store flyers and commercials chock full o’ notebooks and backpacks and glue and crayons.

Speaking of which, I’ve always loved this Staples commercial, pitch-perfect in its depiction of parental glee this time of year.

Here’s the thing, though. As dour as the faces of those two little kids in that ad appear, I’m not so sure that they’re really all that bummed to be going back to school. I know my girls would never cop to it, but I firmly believe that when August 26th (our first day of school) finally rolls around, they’ll be just as eager as any gloating parent to welcome back the structure and routine that school brings.

Just don’t let ’em know that I’m on to them.

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Back to School

They couldn’t wait for summer
with its drowsy afternoons,
its swimming pools and lemonade,
its lovely midnight moons.

They couldn’t wait for summer
and for staying up past ten,
for waking when they wanted to
and napping now and then.

They couldn’t wait for summer
to stare into the sky
while spying birds and bunnies
in the clouds that floated by.

They couldn’t wait for summer
to lie around all day
to laze about from hour to hour
as time just slipped away.

They couldn’t wait for summer
to do nothing much at all;
but by July, when boredom hit,
they couldn’t wait for fall.

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©2010 Carlotta Eike Stankiewicz