A Hot Day And A Sticky Black Tarmac

I'm bleeding pretty colors,
Yeah, all over myself.
- Juliana Hatfield

The heat is a bully. The heat is the bully you once dreaded at school, the very same one who waited for you after class each day, his fist a packed sphere, a planet you were doomed to cross orbits with. Unlike the squinty-eyed bully of your childhood, however, the summer's heat won't wait after you've gathered your notes and stuffed them into your bag. It doesn't care to wait until the school's authorities clear out before it finally knocks you to the ground. The heat believes itself to be an authority, anyway, and will bring you to your knees even if the government vows to protect you. And everyone knows this government is shit and all its promises to be no better than chaff, so screw that.

But like I said, there's no stopping this summer. We're a country bisected into rain and sun, and now that March is ready to sigh out its last days, the heat has begun marching in steady legions into the city, stunning everyone into near-inactivity. The humidity is worse, too; the air feels sodden and irritatingly present, resistant to the smallest movement. Imagine curtains of molasses, try your best to picture it!

After all, an energetic imagination is what we all need now to get through this goddamn heat. If you can imagine what a curtain of molasses may look and feel like, you might also succeed in convincing yourself that the heat is just a trifle you can slap away into retreat. Forget cancer and those nasty ultraviolet rays. Your skin has the tenacity of leather. Your skin is patched over with small mirrors that reflect the sun's glare.

The sun, in fact, can do nothing but yell out its empty solar threats. The sun is actually ridiculous! The sun is a lemon drop you can pop easily into your mouth. When you grin, your smile radiates light from the lemon drop resting on your tongue. Even when the lemon drop has dissolved, the light resides in your skull. You are luminous at all hours.

If you can think that, you'd have won half the battle.