Cool

The summer day is so hot
friends stay away.

I can picture them-
like me-
leaning into open refrigerators
and freezers
with frozen chicken,
hamburger,
Minute Maid.

We breathe the air
and fan the coolness
into ourselves.
We are not at all 
thinking of wives or children
who try to sleep in the heat.

These moments are only for us,
the stolen coolness for us.
The appliance for food,
the cool air, accidental.

We stay apart
until the sun fades
and then with bottles of beer
begin our exaggerations
each one.

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Connie Marcum Wong

Date: 12/23/2021 11:44:00 AM

Sounds like Fresno to me. I can relate and remember the chickens walking around with open beaks and wings lifted off their bodies trying to cool themselves down. That kind of heat you never forget…120 in the shade under a tree until the old outside thermometer breaks from the mercury going too high. You express it well in your poem Doug. Holiday blessings