a planetary wrong turn

with no off-ramp to the Goldilocks zone

       *

the one-eyed dogcatcher told the boy about a little green farm

       *

he prefers the original artificial taste of Rocket Pops

       *

when translating ‘summer thunder’ was a cinch

       *

locust swarms on the I-80 corridor

the HOV lane transcends

       *

the urge to answer the unknown caller

       *

before Les Mots

I played Wipe Out

on the surface of the sun

       *

a seance of pewter rain falling

an inch at a time

       *

I rushed in to tell about the silver maple leaf

independently astir in the heat 

       *

pennies on the track

how I got to know the long faces of Lincoln

       *

he couldn’t hear the bell crickets

with the air conditioner on full blast

       *

breathing the same air as the bulked-up horsefly