by: leggomyegguo

This summer feels like forever. Forever in covid-19 terms, In mockery to the secret of the universe that time is not linear.

Forever in the incessant heat. of human life reaching its boiling points, of nature taking its course in ebbs and flows, and of us, a cohort in consciousness feeling the ebb pulling us inward alone together

Forever in the incessant heat, No gust of arctic wind Would carry it away The calm after every storm was another wave of stifling heat Of close calls, Calls from an unknown number, a foreign language Calls from an unknown number, duct cleaning Calls from an unknown number, covid-19

And still, somewhere along the way We passed the solstice A meteor and a shower Brought us a sudden Autumn chill breaking our illusion of forever

Nothing is forever Not this summer Not these ebbs Not those flows

September looms, its scent hanging in the air hardwired in my mind as the start of a school chapter feelings a new and feelings an old

This morning I walked to the soundtrack Of the old lamenting their loneliness I retreated into my mind with fear As I feel the stagnation of my life Wrapped up in my aloneness My loneliness My uniqueness My forever

Hoping, perhaps for a call from an unknown number.