Fire and Rain

	 along hilltops, or by  
shallow coastal waters, the air so still   wind farms in their pegboard  
placements, the turbines stalled in  
Quixotic postures 
 
	 yet another  
heat wave jockeys for position   smoke  
from wildfires, charred-acre ash, lifted miles at the whim  
of thuggish weather, settling  
on the windows   on the leaves of the trees  
a dusting  
of bye-bye baby 
 
	 long gone, summer’s cooing greens   now 
skillet days, in dry river beds the stink of crackle-glaze bream 
 
 	kindling continents   wiring looms of lighting, ancient aquifers  
brackish now 
 
	wet kisses   fluid gender tropes   a watery grave 
 
 	in death’s autobiography, the ending 
never  
what it seems 
 
	 in the deep ocean 
only watchful shadows   in my satchel, metaphorical  
tavern scenes, sour ale and the shade 
of Marlowe   all the acts 
bloody 
 
 	the company rehearses a bead of sweat 
ex temp    
 
              exeunt 
the Fool, pursued by fever dreams