Sultry

Stepping into the night sauna makes me think of melting wax or chewing gum. If you pressed your finger into your skin and lifted it, I can imagine the skin stretching like gum. It makes me think of ice cubes and cold water running down the hollow of my throat, sweat rolling down the center of my spine. Skinny dipping, nudity slicing through water like penguins, breaking the surface, wishing for just a breeze of the arctic. Drifting on a float like a mermaid, hair streaming in the water, unafraid, unabashed of nipples puckering under sensual thoughts. Bullfrogs languidly croaking for mates, lazy crickets, blues on the radio, heavy on the saxophone. Hand fans, ceiling fans, electric fans, whirling, whirling, whirling, moving hot air from place to place to place. Cats, laying in the garden on the Mother’s cool earth, their ears flicking, otherwise showing no signs of life. One glowing cicada emerges from its chitin, and attempts to dry its wings so it can sing its love song. Restless, tossing, sex, steam rising, slipping, sliding, feverish, intense, heat crazed, breathing - heavy like the air - hotter, fingernails sliding on slick, slick, slick skin, skin slick with sweat. Carnal fucking, animals in heat, for we are animals, harsh, sexual words. Moans, gasps, hands and mouth and teeth urging faster and harder, so urgent, out of control, bodies arching, pulses racing and whirling, whirling like the fans, drying the slick sweat, from place to place to place. A cat flicks its ear forward, sensing before seeing, a train in the distance, raising through the night, the earth trembling and creaking, the whistle drowning out the whirling and the croaking and the lazy crickets. The cat watches the train disappear and closes its eyes in the sultry night.