Tequila Sunset

Traveling due west, bloodshot sun glares at bleary clouds, skims down
adulterated blue, descending to the edge of the world, setting on fire an
intoxicating scene. Spectacular horizon under sky lit up in lurid hues of
caution and alarm, extreme spectrum that’s perfect tequila sunset. On
your way to the end of the earth, you cruise the garish boulevard blinged
out with glittering rhinestones framing ultraviolet shades, polarizing
lenses to protect your vision of reality. See all the streetlamps, digital
billboards, and scripted neon lighting up as the sun goes down.

Hotter Than July

A month of picnics, drive-throughs, and cookouts. For breakfast, free-
range eggs fried sunny-side up on the hood of a gas-burning car. At noon,
fish poached in lily ponds. No one goes barefoot when soles burn on
pavement like tender brats grilled over red-hot coals. As you plan your last
meal, chunks of ancient glaciers are ice cubes melting in a bowl of
steaming broth. If, in a season of superlatives, you survive the hottest
month on record in the hottest summer of the hottest year in the hottest
decade ever, you’ll want a cold shower and a sip of chilled champagne.

Derecho

It’s a straight line, the squall line, in one direction without correction.
Unlike a twisting, turning tornado, pirouetting demon-dancer whipping up
disasters of rotating wind, derecho doesn’t skip or twirl but storms dead
ahead, making forward advances. A militant force, relentless battle line of
thunderous destruction, striking all in its path, leaving only the wretches
and the wrecks that echo in the stretch of derecho. This driving, raging
rainstorm always has the right of way, so stay out of the way of derecho.

Chilling Effect

Tongue stuck
             to an ice block
                          my fresh raspberry frozen
before I can speak

Shiver of fear
             rips through
                          my cooling core

Cold prohibition
             halts unuttered words
                          congealing in my throat










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