Lake Effect, Volume 25: "Fires & Floods"

Fires & Floods

By Despy Boutris

 

The night is hot as hell.

Really. The heatwave is so bad

 

that street signs are melting

like ice cream

 

and scorpions are taking dips

in the local pool, desperate

 

for a little relief. Last Tuesday,

I baked a cookie on the hood

 

of my truck, watched

the chocolate chunks bubble

 

under the sun.

I can’t touch the steering wheel

 

without the risk

of second-degree burns,

 

and the winds are so strong

that I’ve lost two sunhats

 

and the whole state smells of smoke.

News of the fires and floods

 

keeps pouring in: down south,

a city lies half-submerged in water,

 

and, here, dozens of houses burn.

Too hot for even shorts,

 

we strip off our dresses

and collapse on the grass

 

by the lake. When you turn

onto your stomach, I want

 

to touch the sweat pooling

in the valley of your spine.

 

I want to rub our bodies together,

make a house of flames

 

before this whole place goes

up in smoke. Fire, in my experience,

 

is a stronger force than water,

and we’re all branches

 

waiting to be burned.