you are giving me
lots and lots of good luck
in every morning kisses
lots and lots of happiness
in every punch lines
lots and lots of courage
in every hold hands
lots and lots of you
in everything I am

At camp
There was a woods
And lots and lots of free time.
We would take walks
Lots and lots of walks

We found trails
They were made of gravel
I forgot my shoes.
Emily carried me
On her back
Down the trails.

We found an island
The island had many goats.
The island had a bridge
The bridge had a gate
Lindsay climbed over the top
Noah climbed on the bottom
Nearly wading in the river
I tried to climb the fence
I couldn't climb the fence
I fell off the fence
And ripped my new khaki shorts
All the way up to the waistband
Abe asked to see
I didn't know why.

We found a dock
Some of the boards were missing
So we ran up and down
Up and down
Up and down
Jumping over the gaps
Where the boards broke.

We found a water park
Closed for fifteen years
We tried to sneak in
In the dark
But the door was locked
They pried the boards back
And I crawled through
Alone in the dark
I found the door
And let them in.

We ran from the water park
When our imaginations
Heard ghosts
Abe ran into a fence
He got cut
Noah ran into a fence
Elijah ran into a fence
JJ ran into a fence
All the same fence
They didn't heed my warnings.

We found Noah
Running through the courtyard
With an arm full of bed sheets
And a bare chest
He climbed the tree
And left the bed sheets
Strung up in the branches
Tristan pretended to think
That it was funny
When he fished his blankets
Out of the trees.

We found friendship
In five days
In the middle of Amish country

At camp
There was a woods
And lots and lots of free time.
We would take walks
Lots and lots of walks

There are lots of vacant lots.
Ask the person you hate most
to go with you to the vacant lot
your friends have chosen for this
coming Saturday. Tell this person
you'd like to pick him/her up.
Tell him/her you'd like to introduce
him/her to your friends. There are
many vacant lots, so you don't need
a temple or a mosque or a synagogue
or a church or a cathedral or the Vatican.
Then all of you will stand in silence
for a time. Tell your new friend thanks
for coming, that his/her coming has
blessed your day.

TOD HOWARD HAWKS