AC

Dark pink sky by 6:15, sudden noise from the neighbor’s AC.

Once the light stains the water, duck sound joins the AC.

A single songbird trills, a heron rasps, half a dozen fish jump.

Dawn brings fresh cool air in the windows, makes the AC

irrelevant, though if your windows are closed, you blunder

through this sweetest part of the day, you’re cloistered in AC

closure as if the real world didn’t exist. The daily dozen ducks

stream in above the lake, slow, skid to a water stop. AC

silences all this noisy natural life, wraps humans in the hum

of conditioning. I say I’d rather sweat, & because my AC

stopped cooling yesterday, started streaming hot air up

the stairs, Carol will now sweat until someone repairs the AC.