Down by the Riverside
(by Dave Etter)

Uncle Roy
has done it
again. He
has sailed our
bright orange kite
with the long
and fancy
tail into
the summer
sky. He will
soon make it
fly higher
and higher.
My sister
Lucinda
prances on
spongy grass.
Our yellow
dog Barney
barks and barks
his doggie
approval.
Mom and Dad
have seen lots
of orange kites
dance in a
warm breeze. Mom
gulps a cold
drink while Dad
is busy
at the grill
cooking meat.
Both of them
leave us to
our young joy
down by the
riverside.


​(from Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art ​by Jan Greenberg)

Thomas Hart Benton, Down by the Riverside, 1969