Heat Wave
Like some Dantean punishment
It descended in mid-May,
Turning my favorite springtime month
Into an endurance test.
We fell to sleep beneath a tide of heat
Rose to rising heat, uncoiling
From the roasting ground.
The heat was thickly wet though no rain fell;
Made one walk with slowed reptilian gait
Pressing through invisible deeps.
I stood looking over my lawn
As I panted beneath the unseeable, steaming sea
As I watched it turn into a minature savannah.
Thoughts of the Amazon crowded me,
Choking under waves of green.
Later, guzzling cold tea beneath my blasting vents
My Scientist Voice reminded me
How no May of my childhood ever seethed like this,
Back before we burnt that hole in the sky, Down Under.
I thought of how our own blazing star
Is crowding closer to us now,
A yellow tiger,
Burning all too bright.
Copyright © William Masonis | Year Posted 2007
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