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You'd see 'em wearing their baggies
Huarachi sandals too
A bushy bushy blonde hairdo
 --Surfin' U.S.A. sung by the Beach Boys
  Song by Blind Guardian


Summer’s Resolution

   I lived that summer in my car,
   “Surfin’ USA” my favorite song
   blaring from the speakers,

   my toothbrush and clothes
   tucked under the seats.
   All summer I posed

   in my sea blue flip flops
   and baggy swim suit, an arm  
   around my surfboard's waist.

   “Hey, want a photo with a surfer?”
   I shouted to everyone in a bikini
   who strayed up Daytona Beach.

   I backpedaled like a sandpiper
   to face yet another tall blonde
   striding up the sand.

   “Rogue wave!” I shouted as foam
   curled around your ankles.
   You haughtily sailed past  

   as if I were a dangerous reef.
   I trailed you down the sand
   till you wound up face down

   on your beach towel,
   your bikini strap undone,
   my heart thrown off its board.

   I tried again, with lines rehearsed
   the entire season.
   “Last month I rode waves in Waikiki

   —and off the black sands of Maui.”
   That didn’t impress you.
   Well, I thought, “Wipe Out”

   playing from a tinny radio nearby,
   maybe next summer I’ll go
   to Hawaii, and learn
   to surf.

I smiled. More power to your poetry.

Thanks, Siva.