Thursday, July 28, 2011
In the Night-time Heat
In the night-time heat,
June bugs buzzing on the screen
- don't they know it's July? -
I sit motionless,
feeling the sweat roll down my chest.
I hear a car idling across the street
and wonder what it's doing there,
whether the occupants are perhaps
enjoying an air-conditioned respite
from their sweltering house,
or maybe they are moonlight lovers
sneaking in a sweaty rendezvous,
their temperatures rivaling the outside's.
Who knows what can happen on a night like this?
Murder, mayhem, music, booze, sex, drugs
all melting together on a sultry summer night
revolving in its own steamy torture.
Sleep won't come so a writer writes
and down in the heartless city
an old man dies of heat stroke.
Alone in the endless world.
- Rick Dale
Rick Dale is the author of The Beat Handbook: 100 Days of Kerouactions - part nonfiction how-to, part memoir, and part journal, The Beat Handbook lays out one hundred days of reading, writing, and introspection that can help you find your inner Beat.
Rick has a D.Ed. in Educational Administration from Pennsylvania State University, and is a professor in the Special Education Department at a state university in Maine. In the Night-time Heat is reprinted here with the author's permission. It first appeared in the Daily Beat in a slightly altered format.
Like the be-bop jazz that inspired a generation of nomadic wanderings and writings, Night-time Heat bops to a different rhythm on this page.
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wow nice capture not only of the moment but where you are in it and the old man dying is a great finishing touch as he too probably sits alone...
ReplyDeleteyes a nice capture. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteIt is an honor to share Rick Dale's work. As with this poem, he takes me back to a different time and place.
ReplyDeleteRick, I so enjoy your work...I confess, perhaps more than Kerouac. It's raw but more accessible to me. In this one, I felt like I was right there in Times Square, sharing the experience.
ReplyDeleteYou had me..there.. crisp images, sharp dialogue and a tidy ending..
ReplyDeleteyes sir..good po here!
lynne
thewordbar.wordpress.com
Hi Rick..... Great read... Your poem describes so many forgotten nights of my own....... really related this this....... good job......
ReplyDeleteLove this:
ReplyDelete"all melting together on a sultry summer night
revolving in its own steamy torture"
oh i can feel the pulse of the city here...great work by rick - may check out his book..and yes...who know what can happen in nights like this...
ReplyDeleteIt is a great book Claudia, you wouldn't go wrong in picking it up.
ReplyDelete