Melting
Burning, stinking, torrid
Black mush
Tar
Sticking to my elbows
The highest muscles of
Calves

I’m melting

Under the heat
Of the sun,
That yellow
Blazing blanket.

Skin on fire.

Cement baking.
I lay down
The better to
See the sky,

My dear.

Echoes of voices
Distant car murmurs
Speaking like protesters
So far
From their objective:

This boiling rock.

My sweat
My fountain of youth,
Cooling
Eternal life force

I am alive

Breathing
Like fire
I can feel it
Adding heat
To the air

So humid.

I’m drowing
Suffocating,
The trees don’t
Move

Air so stagnant

My breaths
Should blow
Them over
At the trunks;
Unobscure
That blue,
Crystalline sky

Atmosphere, chill this air.

Nebraska melds me
To its concrete
Streets like a soldering
Iron adheres
Calescent bars of metal.

My love,

No one anticipates
A feverish
Summer season.