The heat broken

Mark Vogel

 

 

A week of heat rising on cue

white threatening oppression

unaffected by fans

and naked lethargic skin.

 

A week of heat increasing

like it will never leave,

until the land bakes to dust,

and shrivels away.

 

This morning a thin waterless fog hangs low,

as the crows talk to tall trees.

Yesterday’s dry fever lingers,

waiting.

 

It is enough to walk in the gray fog

and hide from brightness,

to see gravel, trees, and fence line

without glare.

 

This vague hint of cool promises to live on

for an hour, maybe more.

The sheltered calm is delicious.

Maybe the war is ending.

 

   


Mark Vogel has directed the Appalachian Writing Project for ten years. He is currently Professor of English at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. His poetry appears in Poetry Midwest, English Journal, Cape Rock, Dark Sky, Cold Mountain Review, Broken Bridge Review and other journals.

 

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