A Fell Day For The Empire Poem by Louise Deutsch

It was hot out,
And they struggled to carry their silence,
Weighing upon their shoulders and pushing its face into the soft undersides of their chins.
They stumbled slightly over the cracked concrete on the sidewalk
While the humidity surrounds them, gropes them.

The silence is heavy and the heat is heavier,
And what is between them is foolish.
It all started with bathing suits,
And now it’s not even the weather for that:
This weather is for nakedness,
So that the droplets of sweat that roll down the bodies can roll off
Instead of being absorbed into sticky clothes.

It was about bathing suits and pride,
And caring and not caring about other people.
Her mother said that if she wore clothes pool side,
People would think that she was menstruating,
That nature was forcing her to leak fluids.
And she thought that no one would care if she wore clothes,
That other people who want to go swimming were swimming,
Not Thinking about a teenaged girl who didn’t want to.

The humidity lessened its hold,
And it began to rain.
The water tried to rub against them,
Slide its slippery hands down their chests and into their shirts.
They sought shelter and sat under eaves,
Commenting on the rain while their silence shoved its elbows into their soft sides.
The rain left to go find other women to molest,
And the humidity returned but kept its distance.
They stumbled over the concrete again
And listened to their shoes squeak against the ground.

Later on while they sat in a cab and sped through the jungle,
A chant sounded on their left, tearing into the night.
“That’s a mosque, ” her mother said.
“I know, ” she said,
And was silent as they turned a corner,
Voices vanishing and the feeling of her brother’s sleeping form rocking into her side.