HEAT OF DAY
The following is poem number 11 of 2009’s NaPoWriMo – 30 poems in 30 days during the month of April. The original prompt was, “remember that time in Milwaukee…”. I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide how much of what follows comes from memory.
HEAT OF DAY
I soak tomato plants because the heat
melts paint and morning moisture is gone
by noon. The neighbor kid watches,
throws rocks at ants, asks about girls,
being the age where nothing makes sense.
I shrug, tell him to get a book, talk
to his father which scares him to death.
He runs off and I go inside, stare
for a minute at the tenant from upstairs
who likes to prune petunias out front. Not dressed
for garden work, she wears a mini skirt,
wooden clogs, halter top that barely keeps
her skin tucked in. She looks up, says Hi
through the screen, a smudge of dirt
on her cheek, while the neighbor boy
hides behind a tree, peeks
at her bent-over frame for answers.
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Tags: April Fools, NaPoWriMo 2009, national poetry writing month
