The Summer Night

How were you so unmoved by those passing carnival rides?

Their dizzying weightlessness stuck to the heat of that night.

Moving from place to place, filling it with nauseating sweetness. Candied love,

intoxicating lovers with carnival games, and over stimulation.

You seemed so different to me, not to acknowledge that effect you had on me.

Soda toss, balloon pop, you let me win them all, even tried to smile at its cost.

I didn't affect you at all; but I couldn’t carry those prizes on the sickening fever of that night.

I was so nauseous with fair rides and sticky sweetness; longing illuminated by the lights.

Your presence cut through the thick air held at the heart of summer dusk.

Its weight couldn’t keep your burning presence from tearing out spaces in my mind.

My thoughts were sequenced by the air you cut through; my presence

coated in cherry cough syrup, soaked in pink and yellow fair light.

Your presence illuminated in something much different than their whimsical light.

How I wished you acknowledged that heavy air weighing on you that scorching summer night.