My Summer Sweetheart

Summer Poetry Collection

Where the Lake Remembers Us. ©2026 Kim West, All rights reserved.

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My Summer Sweetheart

Every summer
you return to me

in pink ice cream,
melting faster
than we could eat it.

In peaches
from a roadside stand,
warm from the day’s sun,
their sweetness
running down our cheeks.

In the lake,
scattering diamonds
across the afternoon
while we sat
on the cabin deck,
contented with the day
and each other.

In nasturtiums,
small cups of flame
spilling through the garden.

Beneath the old pergola,
where climbing roses
braided themselves overhead,
their petals drifting
onto our shoulders.

At the quiet shore,
where we were
three little ducklings,
happy
to drift together.

Along the boardwalk,
lavender and sage
warming the evening air,
our footsteps lingering
long after dusk.

In fireworks
opening bright flowers
above the dark water,
each bloom fading
before another arrived.

In slow walks
through the garden.

In a picnic
beneath the old maple,
where the shade held us
like an old friend.

In our annual search
for the elusive lake monster,
pretending each ripple
might become
a tale
worth telling.

We found
something rarer.

Summers
that did not know
they were becoming
memories.

That quiet shore
is no more.

The ducks
have found
another place
to gather.

Yet somehow,

the peaches
still ripen,

the roses
still climb,

the wind chimes still sing,

as the lavender
still perfumes
the evening air.

Every summer,
I buy peaches
and sit beside you
in the garden.

Perhaps this is how love
continues,

inside the places
that remember us.

Like the winding road
we once cruised,

where the lake
borrowed the blue
of the mountains,

and the mountains
borrowed the blue
of the sky,

until no one could say
where one ended
and the other begins.

No longer held
by hands,
or time,

love lives

where the memories
meet longing,

in midnight, the moon,
and the stars in the sky,

in the place
where one ends

and the other
begins.

Where the lake remembers us.

Every summer,
my sweetheart,

we’ll find you there.

💛✨

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© 2026 Kim West. All rights reserved. All writing, original photography, artwork, illustrations, audio recordings, guided meditations, worksheets, downloadable resources, and other original content published in Sanctuary and Linger are protected by copyright.

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