Summer Heat

words assault my ears

I push END

Anger draws a knife and cherry pie oozes onto the oven floor

Disappointment yells like he’s alone in a forest

Impatience awakens with a jolt

spilling red fruit onto my shoes

and onto yours too

a sticky, bloody mess

leaving embarrassing tracks

surrounding me like a guilty skirt

I cannot sweep it away

or hide it behind fancy manners

my fingertips absorb the stain

and gloss my cheeks

smeared like rotten crabapples on a hot sidewalk