Coming Together - Camilla Basham

Freshly cleaned green heads and teals
stuffed with garlic, onions and Cajun seasoning
poured from an orange container with brown script.
Fresh white butter beans sauteed with crispy bacon and scallions
simmering on the back burner of the old cast iron stove.
Home grown ripened cantaloupe precisely sliced
and arranged on a delicate porcelain plate.
All served with a chilled jug of sweet tea.
Relished under archways of Crepe Myrtle
gently casting shadows on a freshly cut St.Augustine lawn.
Geese fly over head in an aerial "V".
Storm clouds slowly make their way across an August sky
to offer a much needed respite from the sweltering heat.
A breeze.
A light drizzle.
Soon raindrops the size of the buck shot
spit from our mouthfuls of wild duck
into our crisp linen napkins.
Raising our face to the sky we welcome the rain.
Allow it to wash clean our faces and enter the creases of our smiling mouths.
The rain breaks the heat.
Laughter breaks the silence.
Once soaked,
we run for cover to the shelter of our little wooden house on the lake.