I want to express my gratitude to everyone who has taken the time to read and listen to these poems from The Opiate Magazine.  I am, as ever, so moved by the kindness and support of this amazing community!

This is the third and final poem from the 2019 Winter issue of The Opiate Magazine, along with the recorded version from my YouTube page (to which you can subscribe if you choose).

The Sun Creeps Up and Swallows Joy

Sidewalk dwellers escape the pavement,
searching for blades of coolness in the grass.
They sink into mirages that ripple and shimmer
with the promise of relief,
but reverie is severed by the venom of the season.
There is only the dense heat of its gaze,
parched tongues and energy siphoned
through the tops of blistering scalps.
Children choke on the fumes of heatwaves.
No clouds appear in a punishing sky
to quench the skin of homeless families.
They succumb like prisoners without eyes,
breath dictated by thirst,
voices pulled into the melting throat
of an urban backdrop.
The sun creeps up and swallows joy,
hiding the incandescence of rain beneath its tongue.
Hope dissolves into the teeth of summer.

*originally published in The Opiate Magazine