THE BEACH SIZZLES AS I HIDE INSIDE

by Bradford Middleton

The heat comes to suffocate me as this

Summer just seems to drag on relentlessly,

Never-ending it seems as each day I wake

To yet another cloudless sky or, worse yet,

That horrid darkness which somehow just

Makes the heat feel even stickier & more

Claustrophobic as the sea boils whilst the

Lobsters down on the beach sizzle with

The stench of gammon as they’ll tell anyone

At all, even an old guy like me, we had it

Worse in ‘76 as if that was anything like this

Even from the lofty heights of their 40-odd

Years on this damn dumb planet on which

Most people just spout hate & ignorance to

Give them something to say but tonight it

Ain’t the time to call out those fuckers as

Hell didn’t I just tell you, this heat is

Killing me slowly & tonight I can’t deal

With their hate-filled lies. . . .

Bradford Middleton lives in Brighton, England.  Recent poems have, or will shortly appear, at Dear Booze, Cajun Mutt’s Night Owl Narrative #1, Mad Swirl, Stink Eye Magazine, Beatnik Cowboy, and Fixator Press.  His most recent chapbook, The Whiskey Stings Good Tonight…, came out last year through Alien Buddha Press.