Taking Out the Trash

Summer heat has hit
curdling languishing laughter
into a relentless aura of inward hostility
Huffs and annoyed sighs between 
words shaved down to the bone
the vain sun's long gone
but the heat has seeped into the floorboards
like poison ivy creeping up dinner chairs
slipping in the pulsing veins on my neck
sucking all the love out of even My Little Pony
that yammers ebulliently on the TV screen
brittle patience cracks, sparks flying off my tips
one catches on a loaded grenade
fracturing the evening cool
let's hope as we take out the trash
the attitudes go too
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amaryllis

CA

YWP Alumni

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