Summer Claustrophobia
Jul. 20th, 2014 06:00 pmA nice breeze has come up this afternoon, which is great as long as no brush fires get started. I don't smell any smoke, so it's probably safe. It's pleasant to sit outside in the shade and listen to the leaves rustling and watch the cirrus clouds drift. I've seen a few hummingbirds, but there aren't very many insects flying about. The poor spiders are going to starve.
I probably won't starve, nor will I have to cook, as I have stuff to make sandwiches with. If I stay in the house too long I might get dehydrated, though, as it is still way too hot in here. I'm eager to get back outdoors and feel that breeze pulling the heat out of my skin.
Sunday Verse
by Kevin Young
Here even the darkness
is watered down —
Shades drawn
won't keep out dawn,
Won't bring me sleep
or us any closer —
The gap in our pushed-together
twin beds grows wider.
Regret a green thing
all morning I been
Watering — not that
it needs it —
Even untended my mind
weed-filled, wild.
Nothing wakes him —
not the truck's hum
Backing up, or the woman
who knocks loud, trading
The hotel's ghostly towels
but letting the sheets
Stay unchanged.
Lunchtime,
the adultery hour —
The flophouse fills
with couples telling
Work they need
an extra hour
For the doctor —
you can hear them in the hall
Practicing coughs
& examining each
Other's tonsils. Ah —
If despair had a sound
it would be: DO NOT DISTURB.
If despair has a sound
it's the muffled, raised
Voices of the pair next door
who've lived here
In One-Star Manor forever
yet still pay by the week
— Love's an iffy lease —
Or worse may be
the sharp silence
That follows every fight.
While the secretaries
& files clerks & junior
execs undress —
Trade their shorthand kisses —
I run what HOT
is left (though hard
To know, marked COLD)
till I steam the mirrors
Like car windows
in a prom's parking lot
& I can't see myself.
Despair,
I know, is the ham radio
On low, crackling
like rain & announcing
Today's game
has been called — a first —
On account of too much sun.
I probably won't starve, nor will I have to cook, as I have stuff to make sandwiches with. If I stay in the house too long I might get dehydrated, though, as it is still way too hot in here. I'm eager to get back outdoors and feel that breeze pulling the heat out of my skin.
Sunday Verse
Early Show
by Kevin Young
Here even the darkness
is watered down —
Shades drawn
won't keep out dawn,
Won't bring me sleep
or us any closer —
The gap in our pushed-together
twin beds grows wider.
Regret a green thing
all morning I been
Watering — not that
it needs it —
Even untended my mind
weed-filled, wild.
Nothing wakes him —
not the truck's hum
Backing up, or the woman
who knocks loud, trading
The hotel's ghostly towels
but letting the sheets
Stay unchanged.
Lunchtime,
the adultery hour —
The flophouse fills
with couples telling
Work they need
an extra hour
For the doctor —
you can hear them in the hall
Practicing coughs
& examining each
Other's tonsils. Ah —
If despair had a sound
it would be: DO NOT DISTURB.
If despair has a sound
it's the muffled, raised
Voices of the pair next door
who've lived here
In One-Star Manor forever
yet still pay by the week
— Love's an iffy lease —
Or worse may be
the sharp silence
That follows every fight.
While the secretaries
& files clerks & junior
execs undress —
Trade their shorthand kisses —
I run what HOT
is left (though hard
To know, marked COLD)
till I steam the mirrors
Like car windows
in a prom's parking lot
& I can't see myself.
Despair,
I know, is the ham radio
On low, crackling
like rain & announcing
Today's game
has been called — a first —
On account of too much sun.
no subject
Date: 2014-07-22 02:29 pm (UTC)