Regression

“Climate is what you expect. Weather is what you get.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . – Mark Twain

The fan hums
it’s too hot to read
and I nod and close the book.

The meat of my hand
sticks to paper, the pen
dries up and I close them
in a drawer.

Dead things and picked fruit
rot fast and old folks
who don’t make it
to the movies or the mall die.

Would it break us to deliver
an air conditioner
to each stifling garret?
Drivers and lifters
grateful for the work,
might tip their caps, accept
a glass of cold water.

My grandmas didn’t succumb
to heat. Lucky, they died old
and cared about
and not by their lonesomes.
Through war and armistice
and war the iceman stumped
through their homes.

***

David P. Kozinski was a finalist for the 2020 Hillary Gravendyke Prize for a full-length poetry manuscript. He received a fellowship from the Delaware Division of the Arts and won the Dogfish Head Poetry Prize for his chapbook, Loopholes. His full-length book of poems, Tripping Over Memorial Day was published by Kelsay Books. Kozinski was named 2018 Mentor of the Year by Expressive Path, a non-profit that facilitates youth participation in the arts. He serves on the boards of the Manayunk-Roxborough Art Center and the Eastern Shore Writers Association and on the editorial board of Philadelphia Stories magazine. He is Art Editor of the Schuylkill Valley Journal and Rockwood Park & Museum’s resident poet.