I was looking out on the back yard this morning and wondering when the nearly 50 days of 100+ weather would abate. I took two Dove dark chocolates from their foil wrappers and popped them into my mouth. Soon I was feeling better. I knew the little green blades of grass among the brown ones were the ones chosen by natural selection to be next year's yard. I went out yesterday at 1:30 P.M. to take a swim only to discover it was too hot for such rigorous activity. I submerged myself and swam underwater for a short distance surfacing under my foam mat. With the foam mat forming a shade of sorts, I was able to walk around the pool with only my head breaking the surface.
If one moves very slowly, a 16 oz. bottle of water will ooze from your pores in four minutes or less. A trip to the large garbage can at the front of the garage requires a shirt change if you are able make it back to the relative cool of the utility room without suffering heat exhaustion. My little oak trees provide a one square foot shade at times during the day. The Alpha male and female Jack Rabbits of the neighborhood guard these tiny havens from lesser intruders.
I'm going to float some bonds to help pay for my water bill.
Hauling Hay
I was a teacher
my salary was meager
I spent the summers
hauling hay.
The
was searing at dawn
when I rose to see
if my hay truck
would start.
I climbed in the cab.
looked at the ground.
The truck had no floorboard
just blue smoke and sound.
The hay fields were strewn.
Square bales of alfalfa.
Heavy to lift,
tough to inhale.
We stacked them high
on the flatbed behind us.
One hundred and twenty
at twelve cents a bale.
We made for the barn.
A loft with no air flow.
Sweating and stacking
and swatting the wasps.
The scene was repeated
as long as the sun shone.
Then we, and the truck
coughed our way home.
Dennis Price
