A Hot Afternoon in Malki Chiflik

Cherry

By Turlough

Mon, 30 Aug 2021
  • 1468 reads
9 comments
 

Nothing moves. There is no breeze.

No birds fly by in the cloudless sky.

No creature has the will to disturb the cruel tranquillity.

Not even bees.

Too warm to swarm or gather pollen from the sunflowers

That mockingly smile as earth cracks at their feet.

Gaping fissures like mouths desperate for drink.

 

Trees stand solemn and still like lofty gravestones.

Memorials to past days of rain and

Cooler times before August’s furnace came.

Leaves wrinkle and crinkle and dry

Beside fruit that blushes and swells

Making me wonder where it finds the energy.

For I have none.

 

In a shadow a sleeping Tom

Plays hide and seek with the fierce rays.

With time to bide for the heat to subside,

Only the cat can win.

Nothing stirs. Nothing purrs

‘til dusk shaving off a few degrees

Brings shelter in a conflict with this swelter.

Certificate U
Poem
Poetry in Commotion
Nature

Comments

Submitted by Mark Say on

Convincing imagery of an oppressively hot day. Just reading it made me want to have a lie down. wink

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you Mark.

I must confess that I was lying down for most of the time that I was writing the poem. 

Turlough

Turlough

Submitted by marandina on

What a beautiful poem with wonderful imagery. So well done.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you Marandina for your kind words of encouragement.

Turlough

Turlough

Submitted by skinner_jennifer on

Hi Turlough,

Had to look up Malki Chiflik, it sounds like a great place.

This is how poetry should be written. You've created a master piece and shown another side to your country.

I loved the line:- Trees stands solemn and still like lofty gravestones. I know that feeling when we get a heatwave here, it becomes unbearable.

 Lovely to read this fine poem and look forward to reading more.

Jenny.

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Jenny, you have made my day!

More than a decade has passed since I last wrote a poem so I was a bit nervous about this. I have seen so many wonderful pieces on this site which have impressed me but made me wonder if I was up to the job myself. In my previous attempts I had the self-imposed rule that everything should rhyme and be a bit jaunty which, on re-reading them a couple of days ago, made them seem more like song lyrics than poems. 

So A Hot Afternoon in Malki Chiflik is the first step in a completely new direction and I'm grateful to you for your encouragement at the start of my journey. I'm already thinking hard about the second step.

Our village is a lovely place, by the way, as is the nearby medieval city of Veliko Tarnovo which was the capital of our country until the Turks arrived in the 14th century and started bossing us about so.

Happy Monday.

Turlough

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

I liked your poem very much too. The little bits of rhyme woked really well, like it was  too hot  to keep to  fixed rhyme scheme, and the poem just had to sprawl out like the cat :0) I didn't know it could be too hot for bees.And all the negatives brilliantly convey the feeling of the strength of the heat, how overpowering it is, shutting down everything else

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Thank you for reading my poem and for your kind comment.

I'm not completely certain that it does get too hot for bees. It was just too hot for me to go and see what the bees were doing so I made a wild assumption in the interests of saving energy. Next time it's very hot I'll have a closer look and let you know.

Turlough

Turlough

Submitted by Di_Hard on

:0) definition of poetic licence! Please don't!