Everybody’s hungry
A summer of heat:
lion’s breath, a wind
burning like fire.
A summer of drought
leaves turned sand
paper, ponds shrunk
the creek a feeble
trickle down the center.
Nights of sweat.
For the first time
in forty years, we
have no tomatoes.
As soon as green
ones form, chipmunks
gobble them for water.
Rabbits are eating
pumpkins through
mesh bags. entire.
Trees drop; roses die.
What can thrive in this
desert we’ve become?
• • •
Marge Piercy has published 20 poetry collections, most recently, On the Way Out, Turn Off the Light (Knopf, September 30, 2020]; 17 novels including Sex Wars. PM Press reissued Vida, Dance the Eagle to Sleep; They also brought out short stories The Cost of Lunch, Etc, and My Body, My Life [essays, poems]. She has read at over 500 venues in the U.S. and abroad. This is her third appearance in BoomerLitMag.