Out for a Walk

Muffled heat wraps itself around me with aggressive legs.

Humidity, so eager, so ready, roughly sends its love down my throat.

Ultraviolet rays scatter down and scratch my flesh in a lover’s frenzy.

Sweltering temps continue to hold me down like eager, invisible, hands.

Breezeless air shackles around my limbs with a jailer’s determination.

Black top melt bare soles, embolden by the sun’s cruel vindication.

Sweat rains down reddened bodies, fearful of the oncoming drought.

Hair mats along desert-dry skulls, becoming carcasses in bleaching light.

Everything dies, withers, shrinks, in this blanket of heated, slowing, molasses.

Slowed, but undeterred, we keep moving, through the heat, past its pain.