Summer Air

by Michael J. Leach and Rachel Rayner 

A summer smog clouds
warm air, enshrouding landmarks.
Fog lights brighten streets.
 
Particles are so dark
they redden the Sun’s precise glare

on cracked concrete paths
walked by breathers of smoke
blown in from the bush,
 
from the disintegrating
leaves and the combusting bark.
 
Erupting infernos
of hot colours roar, feeding
on families and homes
 
that spark and collapse into
a void, scorched with loss.
 
Winged seeds rise
from within flaming gum trees
to fly through thick air
 
and soon land on damp soils
where life grows, greening, skyward.

Michael J. Leach is an emerging poet and academic at Monash University School of Rural Health. Michael’s poems have appeared in Cordite, Rabbit, Meniscus, Haiku Journal, Jalmurra, Plumwood Mountain, and elsewhere, including his chapbook Chronicity (Melbourne Poets Union, 2020). He lives on unceded Dja Dja Wurrung country in Bendigo, Victoria.
 
Rachel Rayner is a science communicator who has shared a love of science and language with audiences all over the world, presenting science poetry at the South African National Arts Festival and the Australian Science Communicators Conference. Rachel has had her own and co-authored poems published in various online journals.