Heat Wave 2020
From kimono to sundress
to a wet bathing suit
hanging from a porch chair
in the afternoon
A battle with deer
for my lilies and phlox
Saving corn and hens
with an electric fence
The click of a cold can
Sparkling black cherry
Sliced ripe tomatoes
Flat beans to snap
The sky’s weight hangs
Drowsy thoughts linger
Barefoot and sluggish
Clay soil under nails
Stifled ambitions
amid a fruit fly population
wilt like squash vines
in the mid-day sun
Every day comes down
to meals made and eaten
and good faith attempts
to get something done
Until the stars bring relief
and mysteries to ponder
from a lounge chair dragged
to the middle of the yard
A night vision cam
catches a coon
obscured moon winks
and fireflies elude
attention
________Colleen Redman / Poets and Storytellers United
August 2nd, 2020 12:11 am
The imagery is so good that I can picture scene after scene as the poem unfolds! Lovely!
August 2nd, 2020 12:44 am
I can hear the click of that can….those beans snapping…this poem is an aural and a visual delight.
August 2nd, 2020 3:56 am
You recreated vividly not only the sensual experiences but the thoughts and feelings. Thanks for giving me a visit to your home and your life.
August 2nd, 2020 4:01 am
I love the shift from clothes hanging form a porch chair to the sky’s weight hanging, Colleen, the liberated to the oppressive, especially those stifled ambitions and the everyday routines. My favourite stanza is full of delicious sensual appeal:
‘The click of a cold can
Sparkling black cherry
Sliced ripe tomatoes
Flat beans to snap’.
August 2nd, 2020 5:16 am
Oh, your piece is full of striking imagery; delightful and delicious! I especially like the fifth stanza, there is something of a letting go ‘stifled ambitions’ and enjoying the moment. Beautiful write!
August 2nd, 2020 6:53 am
Such gorgeous imagery in this one, Colleen! ? I especially love; “The click of a cold can, sparkling black cherry, sliced ripe tomatoes, flat beans to snap.” ?
August 2nd, 2020 7:14 am
Sounds and feels like the days before air conditioning. Mind you it feels better when it is less humid. Then I remember the kids running round the garden with the sprinkler on! Delightful!
August 2nd, 2020 8:08 am
A (hot) day in the (sweltering) life, eh?
I esp like “good faith attempts / to get something done”. Been there. AM there. We take inventory toward sunset (because it’s cooler then) and pat our own backs profusely for even the smallest accomplishment.
Great write, CR.
August 2nd, 2020 8:20 am
Oh, the relief of stars!
August 2nd, 2020 10:14 am
oh my!
is that heaven you’re describing?
i’d do anything for a private, peaceful setting as described in your poem. haha. loved it
August 2nd, 2020 11:05 am
This sounds like an amazing summer. Love the way the poem moves through the day, gathering humidity and heat and relief.
August 2nd, 2020 1:38 pm
You catch the best of summer–heat and relief from it–I think I have a similar chair in my back yard–
August 2nd, 2020 2:51 pm
You have the marvelous ability to carry me away with your words, this time to the garden and later to the nighttime time to absorb the heavens. Thank you!
August 2nd, 2020 3:06 pm
Is it horrible that i can’t quite thinking, Thank goodness I’m not the only one who gets up in the morning with the best of intentions to get a whole lot done, but quite often don’t?”</i?
August 4th, 2020 12:36 pm
I know all about those good faith attempts to get something done. Some days are better than others. What more can I say?