Heat Wave

And to think that I saw it on Broadway
Between the parked cars and the sleeping bum
Between the lizard painted building and the dead dog
After the snake walk going no where.

I was surprised at first, to see a bear guzzling Coors
In the heat of a Tucson summer day,
A day when the monsoons were teasing with thunderheads along the horizon
While we, the lowly plebes in the city, sweltered on the blacktop.

An elephant in the living room, no doubt,
Freed from the mundane, smoke filled AA meeting,
This bear had obviously been drinking for a while.
He swayed and lurched down the broken sidewalk,
A trail of cans behind him.

What turns a good bear bad?
What brought him to this sad state of affairs?
We’ll never know.
But the lizards might could tell us, if they spoke.
Instead, they stand sentinel in the median doing deep knee bends and watching.
Watching.