Into The Heat

By Darryl Mason

Sydney melts under steaming skies
heat so intense
you sweat to breathe outside
the temperature climbs rapidly from daybreak
peaking at alarming digits
35, 38, 40, 42
spiking across the gasping edge
of the Sydney metropolitan basin
It's been like this for six days now,
the dawn sun doesn’t say “Good Morning” anymore
It says “Here, Fuck You.”

so hot you feel drunk
and if you down a few beers
you feel ready to crash
at two in the arvo
maybe the dogs that crawl under the house
into the shade
maybe they got the right idea
they know where it’s the coolest
but we can’t get under our homes
anymore

my grandfather could only take the heat
for so long
then he went under the house as well
resting in the cool shade
his dogs by his side
all of them panting
than fading into that half sleep
where the sting of raw blazing summer
just can’t reach you anymore

just how fucking hot can it get anyway?
you wonder this
as you feel an ice-cold beer in your hand
warming as you wind your way back
from the bar
hitting room temperature as you take
that first sip
knowing it’s a race now
to get the drink down
before the heat fucks it

A kid down the road
stumbling
stoned on the heat
decides to try the old test
to see if its hot enough
to fry an egg on the bonnet
of his dad’s fully worked old Valiant
crack, and even from here
I can hear the sizzle
then the kid’s triumphant cry
then his father coming out
then his father crying out
“What the fuck are you doing?”
but the kid is gone
up the street
into the heat

I suppose I could just get an air conditioner