It's Hot Up Here

from here

The heat 

Strangely nostalgic
Reminds me of childhood summers 

Dripping icy poles
Lemonade sticky on the pavement
Memories of going to school
In the height of summer
No hat, no play
Between 11 and 3 stay under a tree
Sunscreen on the teacher's desk
Later. New year's eve. Sitting by the harbour in the shade and still turning the shade of cooked lobster.
Aloe vera in the fridge

The intense HOT
Like living in an oven
I expect the air to explode at any moment
Wait for the air to be thick and hazy red with smoke
To see small delicate wispy ash float through the air
Evidence of burning somethings in the near distance

Abuela burning strawberry oil
To mask the smokey smell
Years later
The same oil
Giving me nightmares
Of fleeing
Of homes being burnt to the ground
Of the world I know being reduced to 

Hazy hot red

But in Connecticut
It's just hot
I'm promised that forest fires are rare here
It rains too often for the world to combust
Every 4th July
I watch the bonfire
And nervously trace glowing embers
Dancing in the air
And pray they won't set the trees alight

Summers in Australia
Mean total fire bans
Because raging bush fires
Destroy entire communities
My year 8 teacher lost everything
Except the clothes on his back
And I always wondered
How does one start from scratch

But like 

Phoenix rising

The heat rejuvinates

Replenishes

The Australian bush

Designed to explode

In order for new growth 

I thrive in the heat

Cold makes me shrivel

Shake

And feel down

In the heat

I feel expansive

Free

Shorts, singlets, and flip flops 

("Thongs" where I come from

Five American summers have drilled 

The colloquialism from my head) 

Walking and working in the heat

Is tiring

And wonderful

The end.