One Summer At A Time

a concerned weather poem

© Dennett

The green that shimmers and glows
in humid Florida air
is dulled and brown-faced this morning
as clouds block the blue and gold
of a disappeared sky

I hear the cheer-cheer-cheer of
Northern Cardinals
the couple living
beyond our porch
singing for joy or
readying to mate again

Ducks dined in the morning
the Whistlers, here most days now
and a lone Muscovy
where is her mate
her aunties and uncles

The lake is low and languid
air still, earth dry
we need rain, not unusual
for May, but always concerning
until the tropics stir
and promise salvation
or destruction

We saw 93F degrees last week
too soon, too high, too much
what’s to come in July and August
hotter than last year’s
off-the-charts hot
always a record to break
a new normal that isn’t