when our world was hot
burned by the slowest sun we’d seen
and the trees shook themselves free of summer green
and down went the lazy honeybees
we knew what was coming
we shook ourselves free under the August sky
and watched the blue world turn again
we burned our skin again
and we remembered you
ebony hair and creased eyes
your gaze into the sunset

how we envied you

your purple people on lined paper
your double-spaced words and ball throws
we remembered the summer a world ago
when the trees bent lazily
and you breathed and drew and laughed
with your family
the horses of your culture
the bitter vodka that you could taste but didn’t
the pricks of air and dying leaves
the heat of shaking trees
the rumble of the school buses
and we knew what was coming
you brought your pens and backpack
rode your bicycle
and the trees disappeared
the sidewalk cracks begged for water
and the sun was low and fanged
a hazy summer sky shadowed you
and you were swallowed
one moment
one tire screech
and the blood wasn’t of a summer we knew
the trees screamed
and the empty letters came
we wanted the birds to die
we wanted the faces to hear you
but august drowned us in heat
blistering skid marks and leaves
bitter flowers you wouldn’t see
the blue world burning
and still
the bruised sunsets stain the mountains of our home
stroking heat across our arms
licking up the waves
dusting honeybees with heat
and the summer orb burns a shadow across you
and feeds your asters and roses
your companions of darker nights
and the trees bleed green
and we burn our skin again
and watch your blue world grow.
It’s beautiful now
It breathes
Like the blood-breasted birds that leap from their nests
paper wings trembling in the wind
dying and living with august in their song
sweet-sweeting for something less empty
something less true
and we watch your forever sky
burn the shaking trees
above us.