2024, no scape, Ohio River Valley Literature, prose

And in between, a record heat

I was standing in the shade of the historic marker on the wharf listing writers and presidents who have visited there. I like smoking with the names wondering if Charles Dickens knew he would be immortalized on the backside of a plaque describing the Steamboat Era. A woman walking by stopped, asked me if the wharf was safe to walk. Her skin perma-tanned like leather.

“No one’s walking,” she said looking past me through pitch black designer sunglasses. “I don’t see people…”

Do not belabor the obvious. No everyone is an alligator in the heat.

I tell her it’s safe. More lights. More cameras. The cops even drive through sometimes.

After the cruise, I’m driving home in the dark. Gaggles of co-eds and zombies run loose in Old Louisville. A sedan with Florida plates cut me off and tried to break check me. I swerved and missed them.

Amateurs.

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry

Lean in

Late August leans in, burns the gills grown
in a sweaty July. The garden groans.
Let the yard grow; it’s a slow death
give the crab grass it’s moment
under the excitement of an unrelenting sun.

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2024, Ohio River Valley Literature, poetry

another Fool’s Autumn

the air doesn’t smell right

the colors at sunset
still burn summer

appreciate the respite
soak in the cool morning breeze

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