Ozone Layer

Summer comes on like a wave
the oven door is opening
and California can not save

Memories of summer you may have
from childhood they hide in your cells
summer comes on like a wave

Knowing it will come means you must be brave
deep and ready, for months you prepare
and California can not save

No place to hide there are no caves
there are no longer clouds to cover
summer comes on like a wave

The clouds are gone, they had to leave
the brightness is almost unbelievable
and California can not save

Open your sweat glands, wet your shirt
when the white heat comes it will blind
summer comes on like a wave
and California can not save

(c 2003) James Rosenquist

710

who owns this freeway?
hell, who knows
a black stretch
of hardened
chemical waste
there’s a billboard on the right
a fifty foot mechanical heart
and man, the things beating
this freeway’s the artery
cut open
bleeding towards home
one red corpuscle after the other

I try to relate the whole experience
to myself,
explain my life
in one big
metaphor
but find I’m locked up in a gearbox in my head
and can’t relate to the tissues
that surround

the radio plays songs
about distant battles
Iraq and Jerusalem
I drum my hands on the wheel
but no matter
how hard I beat them
I can not feel that pain

traffic is backed up
red tail light stopped
it’s getting dark and deep
at least another forty-fife minutes
before I reach a bar
I look in the rearview
and see my face
the mask of a
Chinese Dragon

(c 1992) James Rosenquist