Florida Poem

After summer rains,

marble thumb snails and beetles

blot the window screens

with pearl and drone. Gardenias swell,

breathing is aquatic and travel

a long drawl from bed to world.

During drought,

the heat becomes a devil

girl with oven-red lips

who wants your brains puddled

in a brass-capped mason jar,

who wants the silver stripped

from your tongue, the evening pulse

between your legs, yes, she wants

everything from you