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Dog Days

Along this county FM road there's water
vapor gathered in the ditches and over-
head the oaks show dusty green.
The radio reports on politics and fornication,
a teacher and her thirteen year old lover.
Good folks are stunned by gossip and hot weather.
Lord, Save us from the need to chide sad flesh
or to believe we're not all animals with wishes.

Help us admit the blessing in an August wind,
a cloud-trowled sky, the shelf of blue behind.
Show us the truth's an urgent belly,
what we need most, the slick fender on a Chevy,
a body bent over it, hot as a summer
garage, the roller coaster second before we come.