Phantoms of Summer

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	Woodside Drive, an hour after sunset; see the ghosts of a summer’s day.
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	Heat mirages that waver and whisper ‘come away, child, come away
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	To a time when you were younger and less wise than you are now...’
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	I watch the blacktop phantoms of summer, and wish I could follow them somehow...

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I was a little white girl in a little white dress
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Just like a little white bird in an eggshell.
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I told some little white lies, I did my little white best,
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I was a little bit flawed, but I meant well.
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And I spent my nights at the edge of the wood catching fireflies,
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Little white stars that I could hold in my hand
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That had never quite finished falling out of the skies,
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And I wished on every single one, before I let it go.
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Did I get what I wished for? Only me and the fireflies need to know.

I was a little bit good, I was a little bit bad,
I was a little more than they expected.
I was a little bit strange, I was a little bit sad,
I thought the wood and the world were connected.
And each day the sun rose over the trees, and my world went on;
This was forever, the woods and the sky,
And I never believed that one day, this could be gone.
And I wished on every single day, before I let it go.
Did I get what I wished for? Only me and the setting sun need to know...

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	See the phantoms of summer dance and flicker in the night,
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	Little fires that start to fade the moment they ignite.
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	Make a wish on a firefly star -- they burn so brief, they burn so bright,
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	Like the phantoms of summer dancing lonely in the night.

I was a little bit lost, I was a little bit found,
I was the daughter of joy and of sorrow.
I was the shadow a cloud throws on holy ground,
And I was running full-speed towards tomorrow.
And one day I came to the edge of the world that I’d always known,
Summer was fading like a ghost in the trees;
If I went any further, it would be on my own.
And I wished upon the summertime, before I let it go.
Did I get what I wished for? Only me and the ghosts of the summer need to know...

	See the phantoms of summer dance and flicker in the night...

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		The blacktop phantoms of summer call and call and call and call us home;
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		Come to the woods, come to the water, come together, come alone.
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		Hear the blacktop phantoms of summer call us call us through the years;
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		Come fill your hands with starlight and fireflies, come find your heart,
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		Come find your heart, come find your heart, you left it here...
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		You left it here.  I left you here.

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Woodside Drive, an hour after sunset; see the ghosts of a summer’s day.
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Heat mirages that waver and whisper ‘come away, child...come away.’

Written on: 2005-09-07. Seanan McGuire