attenuate...

there is a chill in the humid air

that does not spell relief

as the dogs across the street

try in vain to bark their fleas away

the rapid shotgun shelling

of the tin roofed yellow garage

has once again begun in earnest

beneath the fruited walnut tree

rippling and ruined, the surface

of the once black-topped driveway

rife with long road map crevices

where seeds dream in winter, waits

battered, sodden and swollen fences

bulge and undulate the landscape

more idea than matter, their mere semblance, 

containing the minds of horses into fields

pent firecracker, black-mouthed squirrel's 

swift tail-twitching, rigid bodies explode

as they fling themselves from branch to branch

in a fury of falling brittle twigs and leaves

pond surfaces swirl, vague, from center still-points

nameless small and floating crushed things

water, wind stirred with ragweed pollen when

captured by their rocky rims bears a bitter stink

this season of crest and crescendo flares

from summer's swelled to bursting seedpods 

with a slow motion popping sound, that

swimming in dank humidity, rings dully in my ears

the space between heartbeats is taken up with

unrequited reckoning, unanswered letters

that though bittersweet, are not embittered 

like the battered yet unbroken wings of butterflies

the earth cries chemical tears through our animal eyes, 

emotion, trying to scratch an itch it can't quite reach

I feel it in the subtle goose-bump tingling and sorrowful joy

living just beneath the surface of my multi-layered skin…

lucy meskill