# Delta Summer **by Diane Wiener** Delta summer plays possum with Buddhist Sisyphus lessons a stray cat evening thunderstorm slows thoughts flash flood warnings notice sensations deep weather pushes Wednesday’s speechless noise do not drive unless it’s an emergency cherry pits falling on pistachio shells sound ready to compost the time echo tastes cold air turned hot like when you pee after iceskating when I sing for the boa the kittens trill why do I peel the tape off the book spine leaving it so sticky I have to retape fancy snakes sleep sea scallops split kimchee mouths seven steely-eyed sloths simmer seaside seven slick silver sliders sleek and smirking seven stuttering splices of smack splash seven spider slips speak of Spaniards seven Saturdays splurged on sushi seven strings silly stop showing seven sample skeletons sometimes sidle what if we could taste with our skin the way an octopus does these are the stories of my hands on the keyboard left longer right wider left taller right deeper left lifts light air right finds dinosaur stones waiting for the next fearsome thing running under a lark diurnal den of dreys diatomaceous drifter dog densely dim diner dins daleths delve deliberating chasing clockwise thoughts I cannot track unraveling directions heading to the right the heavier denser side this posture feels like a hat I’m not wearing any more with its numb January hands circulating left stiff right windy left swizzle stick left pink flamingo fizzy Shirley Temple grenadine syrup left thick brick right steady as she goes right left freedom rides the wind twice right lines the math is off marching 2/2 Sousa horns your left your left your left right left there’s the tie snapped for the chorus performance a little yellow book finds thin pointed pain on the left shoulder blade with its uneven glasses I know if I try I will know I know nothing what I know does not matter what I know makes no difference the left higher than the right the left the top step on the ladder the right the bottom rung this morning we make a minyan of hard boiled eggs Siri says all the alarms are off then she says the next alarm is set for 10 p.m. make up your mind Siri a mother bat and her baby recognize each others’ voices and scents among thousands in the nursery colony a baby bat is a pup a bat is as smart as a dolphin vampire bats feeding hurt no one the cows do not feel quick incisions or lapped up blood some people suck but none can pollinate like bats who maintain and advance rather than destroy ecological systems sensation decomposes bark turns to mush I uncoil my head shit from a mussel what happened to the rest of them I can’t be the only one waking up to climb the butterfly effect shouldn’t be a burden winter arrives early tonight or maybe it is just near the back of my neck