Heat Wave
A collection of haiku to melt by
It’s not so much a
wave as a smothering hug
which can’t be escaped.
It is a wave like
a tsunami swallowing
a seaside village
not a gentle hand
paired with a smile and quiet
hello. It invades.
It oppresses me.
It holds me down beneath the
humid, stifling air.
Here in Illinois, as in many parts of the United States right now (mid June 2022), we’re experiencing what is called a “heat wave,” but that term sounds too innocuous. That terms sounds like nostalgic, if a little muggy, days at the end of a childhood summer in which I might have wandered around outside with my border collie, Bandit, as vacation wound down before another school year began. What we’re currently experiencing is the sort of life-threatening heat that can easily kill people. It’s what the weather information that can be accessed from my laptop’s taskbar terms an “excessive heat warning” (another term that sounds understated) with “Dangerously hot conditions with heat index values up to 112 degrees F.” The current temperature is 99 degrees F with a “real feel” of 101, having cooled down a bit from an earlier actual…
