July on the Lawn
by Katrina Agbayani
my whole body stupid with it:
July on the lawn.
through the screen window glows
the stovetop purpled with heat,
the kettle whistling through
the evening already
cauterized to the next.
conversations like
well this week or next and are you catching a ride and
haven’t you had enough and do you like it like that
and no. always no, thank you, waving
the coke can in my face. in the kitchen, warnings about
the coyotes. no, i haven’t seen them yet. too early
in the season. they come in with the pears.
they come in pairs. look now.
look without all the shaking,
without your mouth hanging
open and stupid
like a season that never
arrives before it’s begun.
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Katrina Agbayani is a former editor with Acta Victoriana and La Mosaic. Her work has been published, or is forthcoming, in SAND, Kitchen Table Quarterly, Harpur Palate, Capsule Stories, and elsewhere.