Tag Archives: heat

A June night like a fat man at a bus stop

The fetid dark sits on the house
like a fat man at the bus stop,
sweat pooled on the plastic seat
too narrow for his sturdy frame,
and the night jasmine’s heavy scent
assaults the senses, cloying sweet,
like the memory of his aftershave
after the bus has come and gone;
mixed with the bitter-sour sub-note
of endless folds of tortured flesh
chafed raw from polyester slacks
and trapped in nylon support hose.

Tonight the fat man’s breathing slow,
his rough exhale hot sticky clouds;
frantic mosquitoes seek its source,
sensing the vast expanse it hides.
There in the candle’s flicker flame
they hover in vampire patrols,
drawn by the jasmine scented stench
that seeps out with each shift or twitch.

1 JUN 2005

Share This:

The Coming of Summer

The air is starting to gain water weight –
it sweats like a fat man there at the gate
and leaves hints of moisture with its warm touch;
under its heavy hand, it is too much
work to even sit outside until late.

Even then, as the night blooming flowers
unfold and release their sweet musk for hours,
the damp air is difficult to take in;
each slow breath is a labor to begin,
and seems to soon wilt and lose power.

And in the still dusk, for there is no wind,
the gathering dark seems to suck the light in
and blur all the streetlamps in heavy gauze;
even my cigarette smoke seems to pause
and hang there, dull and lifeless, at my chin.

But the night is alive with living things,
and from sundown to sunrise, the air sings
with whirring and chirping, whistles and croaks,
the Music of life from a thousand throats
and the rustle of countless tiny wings.

As the darkness settles like a thick sheet,
and beads of sweat form from my head to feet,
I slowly breathe in the fetid scent
and sit in silence, my energy spent;
Ode to summer! May your days be fleeting!

14 MAY 2003

Share This: