this lethargic melt as the sun beats my back
this suffocating stillness suffuses my pores
every breath is a sucking exhalation like
the atmosphere gags on chlorine fumes
the charles is low today with river rocks
once submerged under the swollen belly
now exposed and radiating toward perched
mallards who even with their rolling waters
seem to be panting dry heaving left and right

the exhaust from a passing city bus once an
unpleasant blast now nearly imperceptible
i catch a momentary reprieve under shadows
from few rustling flags over the town green
corner store air conditioner beckoning and i
step in for a beverage and some cigarettes as
a man with vineyard vines tote haggles with
the cashier over a five dollar bottle of wine

“enjoying the weather?” queries ironically
the woman on the bench at the trolley stop
finishing her joint and tossing the roach in
the gutter and coughing out a winsome grin
“trying to” swigging cerulean blue powerade
“more than i am” her reply across the wake
of bescrunchied jogger ambling between us

leaning on a fence by the weir i consider my
last day here in this place of slaughter and
refuge and exile and birth named for the
massachusetts a proud people and now
peopled by the mostly undeserving proud
we’re all held in sway of the swelter as the
mercury boils over into already leaded soil
and there’s nothing left to do but queue on
the hot tarmac outside the public pool and
pray for a chance at the chlorinated waters