The Heat-Crazed Sun

No question, the heat-crazed sun
and high humidity qualify this as
one scorcher of a day. As it happens
this year, one such heat-box
summer of a dog-day's after another.
The clear water endlessly trickling
deep within the forested ravine
has become lackadaisical, winking
its way down the almost-parched
watercourse heavy with clay.

Goldenrod nods its deep yellow
plumes in an overheated wisp of
wind. Wild raspberries ripen into
fiery-red, sour-mouthed berries,
small and mean. Queen Anne's lace
flaunts its dry, aristocratic daintiness.
Cowvetch, asters, purple loosestrife
and brilliant sunflowers colour
the heat-struck forest understory.

A nuthatch nonchalantly vacates
its perch on a hoary old hemlock,
while a downy woodpecker bravely
assaults the trunk of a spruce;
nothing out of the ordinary on this
energy-sapping day where the furred
wildlife still scurry frantically about,
searching mysterious advantage.