Classic Poem

In the unbreaking summers
heat muffled even the stars
and the nights were a stalled black
sea with no smallest wind the days
empty as the ears of the deaf
the colors of forest and sky faded
like ageing ink and our hands lost
the rivering lines that named us

heat pulled the lakes and streams
out of their beds and took them elsewhere
hummingbirds fell from dulled air
into the dying flowers

Before much longer a child again
will learn water this time
not by touch but by absence