Poems by Alan Perry

Humidity

by Alan Perry

From Canary Summer 2024

Alan lives in the City of Lakes, which borders the northern end of the Mississippi River.

In the heat of summer
water vapor lingers,
fills the wood of the shed door
I struggle to open.
Our annual tug-of-war
signals I’m late
to level weeds who enjoy
the sultry damp of mid-afternoon,
showing off their dandelions,
clover and quack grass –
attempts to reclaim native prairie.
Like the door, they know
I’m coming for the scythe
locked up with other yard arms –
mowers, edgers, weed whips.
But this year, the door
is especially swollen, engorged
by a heat index that stifles
my ambition. Which gives me
pause to notice weeds
have overgrown my path,
inviting me to sit down
among the ground cover –
let the future swell.

First published in Third Wednesday, 2022