Tonight's Poet Corner: If You Can't Stand It...

If You Can't Stand It...
by Belinda Roddie

This late April heat
is more suitable
for the summer gods
who sip lemonade

through a snorkel, who dip
bruised knees
into soggy birthday cake,
who chew confetti
and laugh louder than fireworks
on Pseudo-Patriotic Day.

They convene over
beer - suds sprout
like their own beards.
Fried delights swell

their stomachs, where
they carry music like
unborn children in
perfect pitch wombs.

This late April heat
sticks
so sourly to me - gummy
sugar and caramel apple
grins spliced with edible
cotton, carnival rides

leaving straw tracks on
my back and shoulders.
I'm too lethargic to wave
my rubber arms in the air -
I'm too tired to wave my
jump rope silly string
arms in the air -

I'm too tired to kiss you
when Sundays
drip
into endless streams, when
ice cream doesn't
numb
me enough, when
hot showers
chill

the hard knock bones in my
chest. I crave mountain
air and ice in my teeth,
frosted gums, hard candy
dreams in butterscotch,

cozy dreams after tea
and schnapps. I want
to get out of the kitchen,
but it has no windows
and no doors. I wish for

late November back,
late December back,
late January and February back,
but this world melts wax
faster than we can eat
the honeycomb,

and the bees
are still goddamn dying.