How to Stay Cool During a Heat Burst, Part One

Tossing and turning throughout the night,

we knew that something wasn't quite right.

The mosquitoes were flapping their weary wings.

The sky was the color of dirty string.

A thunderstorm was supposed to be rolling in.

We felt like we'd been trapped inside our skin.

The air was so hot, it hurt to breathe.

There was nothing we could do that would relieve

the particular combo of humid heat

that started that day with no relief.

When the power went off, we threw up our hands

feeling like we didn't understand.

The weathermen later informed us that

a "heat burst" had almost knocked us flat.

We didn't know then and we don't know now

what they mean by that new term anyhow.

Suffice it to say that the climate we feel

eventually is going to truly reveal

how each of the beings upon this earth

contributes their deepest inner worth.

We finally arose at five in the morning.

Exhausted and damp, we read the warnings

that excessive heat would follow for days.

So we took cool showers and went on our ways.