In the Shade

Bent     form     palm     tree
could be tone deaf as well
(I knew I wasn’t color blind
because I made all the lights
driving across town)
Summertime on the pacific coast
can get like the tropics
temps pushing triple digits
I just shut down in the heat
like Captain Cook
or Paul Gauguin
the former being the main course
at an island luau
& the latter
wasting into leprosy or syphilis
(tropical diseases?) anyway wasted
melting into death
like an aspirin dissolving
in a shot glass
of cheap whiskey
bodies bodies bodies
it isn’t yours until you give it away
like something you
pour out of an empty bottle