The sun is a beast today.
Thin clouds are doing their best to protect us.
in my next life i wish to be a bird or a cat
so that when the incompatible weather (heat) arrives
i could fly away
Oh! let me be a chimney swift
and live my life on the wing
away, away up so high
or
like the purring fur ball that lives here
let me sleep all day
wake just long enough to stretch, eat a morsel, drink
stretch, then sleep until it's gone.
If i must be human
then let me
when the suffocating heat arrives
flee to a perfect little house
on an island beach at the lip of a shallow harbor
where the thermometer rarely touches 80 degrees F
Come June, i dash in and quickly splash out of the little sea at my door step
and in July it is delicously chilly at first but only bracing
and in August my dear friends come visit
and we share breakfast
then body surf in blue green waves
and in September i spend every evening watching the sun drop past the horizon
and in October i come back to this home and the turning of the leaves.
ah, well.
Finally, i can take a deep breath.
Because, while i've been composing this
a stiff breeze has kicked up
and clouds are thickening
and is that thunder i hear in the distance?!
Today, with heat smothering my face
singeing my nerves
i did remember some important things:
- i used to live where it was truly hot and many friends and family still do
- i once dreamed of living here
and now, here i am.
i can look out any of my windows
at the 1001 shades of green
and the blue sky and cotton white clouds
at the iris & peonies
allium & grasses and a the buds on a deutzia
and the first roses
i will close my eyes and savor the sweet evening breeze on my sweaty face
and thank my guardian stars that
i could flee that desert before i turned to dust
and live and breathe, here
in this big house with big windows full of trees and sky
and in this garden.
