The Elements as Prompts Part III

I wrote with winter elements as a prompt and then spring. I don’t get why people wait all year for summer, a season that’s inevitably too hot to do anything. Every movement is an effort under the harsh sun, in the hot air. Some weeks back, a heat wave came as it usually does at least once every summer. Three days of cabin fever but without the soothing snow. It brought a nice surprise though. The motiya plant (or mogra, or jasmine) that otherwise sits indoors for most of the year, woke up. An explosion of buds and flowers. Then the breeze before the oncoming thunderstorm carried the heavy scent in through the windows. I needed a large bowl to hold all the flowers I picked.

The writing prompt this time was a happy consequence of the summer elements. It brought back memories of a childhood in which there was not much in the way of seasons. Other than chilly mornings in December, it was pleasant with the ocean air, warm, hot, or too hot. We never checked the weather.

peak
summer
motiya
unfolds pockets
of fragrance hinting
at evenings spent walking
alongside deep woody shrubs
picking each one careful not to
miss any counting, one, two, three, four,
twenty or more piled high in hands steady
and proud to show Nani they found the most
reaching up to let the flowers tumble down
collecting in the bowl memories by the numbers
fading exponentially though we try to remember