Summer on the Southern Coast

temperature nearing 100

with humidity making it feel 112

heat index off the charts

you wear the weather

breathing a fucking chore

dripping sweat with no movement

then

winds begin with a ferociousness 

bending and shaking trees

herding the charcoal clouds

a distinct purplish-black 

temperature falls twenty

degrees in twenty seconds

respite from a Gulf Coast baking

such a fleeting relief

myriad gallons fall from the sky

squeezed from the onyx clouds

flashes of electric death

following by a crackle

then a deafening explosion

deluge then shifts to drizzle with

only faint rumbles in the distance

the sky lightens

outlines of clouds now visible

hues of blue peak through

the sky goes dry and the sun emerges

steam ascends from the blacktop

and the roasting continues