my summer body & the assumption of our 
figures into the clouds.

are you careful when it's humid?
are you drinking enough water
today? have you ever been a stream?
my body gets hungry for summer
& feeling itself evaporate 
from the back porch-- i drink
lemonade from the powdered mix--
pink like knee cap & 
my father's sun burned forehead--
we are the people who 
brand summer harsh into
our bodies-- pan-fry the freckles
on my cheek bones-- i want to
steam here-- like a pot
full of soybeans pulled up
by the roots-- crush rock-salt
in my fists-- oh you know
it's true that everyone inevitably
falls in love in summer--
you know it's coming--
ready to kiss you in the thunder 
clap of the ran-- pinned up
against the torso of a tree--
drench your body in the 
sobbing & gentle rage of grey clouds--
these that were once our bodies--
i walk down mainstream to feel
my hair beginning to float--
this was back before i cut it all
off-- back when my hair fell
down to my waist-- lifting lifting
& then gone-- taken by the clouds--
& next goes my hands & then
my feet-- turning into beads of water--
this gentle assumption
into the coming storm-- we're all
leaving in such a gentle way--
would anyone want to snow
when they can rain with
the lightning zephyr through 
my un-cut hair--
i am twelve again-- i sit
on a log in the stream & bury my
feet in the silt & the mud
as if to try to tether myself
back to earth-- i wander wander
wander lonely as a cloud
& make a phone call into the
mouth of a daffodil
i call my neighbor & we sit
there & say nothing--
wait for summer to take our bodies
& recycle them back into the
rain again-- i want to fall hard
& break.
i am twenty & summer reminds me
of the back porch & the open bed room
window--
i don't believe in heaven unless
it's summer-- this is when 
it's safe to float--
i feel my hair growing long
no matter how many times i keep cutting
it off-- the dandelions blow
wishes into my face while i
slowly slowly slowly
rise bead by bead into
the clouds--