Poems 2012: Brontosaurus (Summer, Chicago, 1988)

[From now through Wednesday, I'll be sharing some of the so-so poems I wrote up at the island last week. Feel free to comment]

Brontosaurus (Summer, Chicago, 1988)

Thick July sweltered
But I lived near the lake
I would just stand in the water;
We were dinosaurs.

They'd let you in free
Late in the game, Comiskey,
Stern Polish women
Cooked beneath the stands,
The heat was rising.

I found a stone church
And a place to buy hot dogs.
My whole world: Ten blocks
Though I didn't know the whole
Of what was in that square
There was music, drifting.

I would walk and walk and walk
(That, I could afford)
Watch others in the parks
Laugh and fight and sit,
Some as still as the wind.

The Tribune shrieked daily:
"More die in the heat!"
But we stood still in the water,
Gentle dinosaurs of Chicago
Waiting for the fall.