So Heavy Was The Air That Day Poem by David Keig

So heavy was the air that day
So heavy was the air
So hot was everywhere that day
So hot was everywhere.

A breeze
Not yet a cooling breeze
But one straight
Fresh baked from nature’s oven.

Standing
Looking
‘Cross the bay
And high upon the hillsides
A haze
A hot heat haze
Flies slept
Palms paused
No goannas to be seen
And the birds
Dry of song.

The sea
Its siren call so still
The waves
So sluggish and slow moving.

The roads the house and all about
And all about the roads and house
Just hot
Just hot hot hot
Just hot hot hot
With heat.

Tarmacadam
WIith smell like creosote
Whipping up childhood memories
Of english garden fences
And dads working out the back
In cooler summer times.

So heavy was the air that day
So heavy was the air
So hot was everywhere that day
So hot was everywhere.

Would you like a drink my friend?
Some water? Or a beer?
For its not the day for coffee pots
It’s the hottest day for years.

Now look!
Just look!
Just look up high
The sky the sky the sky
No blueness to be seen
Its furnace grey and threatytening
What does this weather mean?

And
We talked
Slowly without passion
As if the heat
Had boiled out
Some part of us.
Our energies
And maybe loud ambition.

So heavy was the air that day
So heavy was the air
So hot was everywhere that day
So hot was everywhere.

Later
When as stars were slowly seen
We stood and asked the moon
Why we do not know the tune
That nature plays
Capriciously
So temptingly
For us
Yes, all of us
Entranced as if Pan’s playful pipes
Played just to gust the breeze
Yet still we seek
And wonder why
And try to understand
Our lands
And the skies
And the winds
And the weather
And yet such things
We can’t command
Not ever
Ever
Ever.