One More Summer Night

Natalie Schriefer

When the streetlights flashed on,

sky bruising with twilight,

my brother and I took turns

launching a tennis ball into the air,

high as we could. That was when

the bats swooped in, investigating,

flitting away before the ball

bounced down. Crickets chirped

and we laughed, my brother and I,

the two of us together, as we threw

the ball again and again, bats careening

and squeaking, the world simple

and alive, blooming between us,

the power wire a thin black line

against the aching lilac sky.