Easy Living - June 15 2022

 

Easy Living

June 15 2022

A scourge of blackflies

ravenous mosquitoes.

Allergies

miserable as blood meals.

Humid air and thunderstorms

and too much sun for sleep.

A hard winter

a chilly spring,

and still

there is no easy living.

Not here, up north.

Would it be better

if we imagined the globe reversed,

down north

the antipodes?

The southern hemisphere,

where the magnetic field inverts,

blood rushes to our heads,

and water circles the drain

in the opposite direction?

Strange beasts, as in Australia

winter in July?

Either cane toads

and poisonous snakes,

or a scourge of biting insects.

Because there's always something

no matter what.

Like a summer storm

that comes out of nowhere

and stops as quickly as it starts.

It's late afternoon,

but darkness descends

as if a switch had flipped.

There is an air

of anxious expectancy,

and I can feel hair

on the back of my neck

tingle with electrical charge.

The wind quickens

lightning flashes

thunder cracks the sky.

A heavy downpour

raining cats and dogs,

cleansing the air

and breaking the humidity.

We run for cover

retreating inside.

Meanwhile, the weather gods

have issued a reprieve

and the scourge briefly lifts;

the blackflies going to ground

mosquitoes lying low.