A Summer sun
turned lush green grass
to lunar dust

but the dogged day
clinched water tight

and wiped the stinging sweat
from its eyes and plowed
pell mell
through crushing heat

toward the dark and gray
of a violent dusk

where thunder ripped
from its nervous fingers
its earthly hopes and dreams

then pelted them
with heavy drops of rain

as it flushed away
all vestiges
of this ugly Summer day

Whit Howland ©2017