The Summer Ends Early

Blurred out pictures
of house fires
occupy the plastic frames
in the greeting card shop,
where pins are pushed deep
into cork boards
hanging on walls
with no windows.

The girl sat for a tattoo
of the word goddess
on the back of her neck
and cut her hair
just short enough
to show it.

The sun sets
like crushing a clementine
behind the distant scattered storms
and I can watch it all
without having to blink.

It goes down past
the dark fields overflowing
with grain high from endless rain.

The smoke poisons me
as I take drags
over and over to keep it burning
in the damp air,
and as the fog rolls in
and covers me
I sleep there
in my plastic chair.

The summer ends
early this year,
it’s head rolls off
it’s shoulders
spraying yellow blood
across the open sky.