Poem: A Summer Walk in Snow

Sun on the wheat.
A path cut through the field.
The grass dry and crackly.
The heat humid and heavy.

Sweat stains your shirt,
runs down your back,
designed to cool,
it does nothing of the sort.

There are bugs.
They surround you like a halo
with sound. A bothersome buzzing
just out of reach.

You shiver, your inner darkness
casting ice down your spine,
like a dagger.

You smile. Your mother’s voice whispers in your ear.
“Never let them see you sweat.”
There is no danger of that. You live in winter,
even as the heat burns the souls of your feet.

About this poem

The picture was taken in Rupert, Vermont.

Tom