the day folds over;
shadows flee the yard.
gold apollo's chariot,
our savior star
burns summer into shimmer street.
neighbor's home blisters, peels, bakes.
litters yellow flakes.

noon is noticed a few thousand times with
compound eyes and something
hops up into light,
throws its armored body,
its last insect idea
into the beak of a mockingbird.

the bird
gloats into a mimosa
singing a hungry prayer.
timid shadows return and
the mockingbird
peers from green stained-glass shade.