A Hot One

We arrived alive in Albuquerque this month back in 1985...It was a dry heat then, and today's gonna be another hot one...Here is a poem I wrote in the early days of the high desert back in the student ghetto of UNM...
It is taken from my book, Flamingos.

OUR BLOCK OF THE WORLD
for Gene and Evelyn

there are days like this
when even grey skies are hot

these are the hot ones
say the gas men
the litterpickers
the meter readers

hot ones
they come like this in summer


there is a porch
on our block of the world
the block where we live
and on this porch
neighbors drop whatever they are done with
whatever they choose to leave behind
to pass on
whatever they choose

and when they leave something
on this porch
on our block of the world
it will be gone by dawn


it is rich
this block where we live
where we breathe and dance
and leave behind all the things
that were once so vital
so precious

and they are gone by dawn

© 2010
Jeff Hartzer