July by Laura Thorp

July
 
A night without stars,
and the air so full
of late July heat, nothing
can travel through it.
The buzz of hornets
and cicada song float,
caught just above
the ground. The warm
metallic scent of gasoline
and cigarette smoke mix
together in a haze that
clings to each brown
blade of grass, sinks
into my skin, and makes
me think that tonight
I could bathe in the thickness
of the wind. Tonight
I could float down
into the saturated warmth
of the soil. Tonight
I could cover myself
with the weight
of this solitude. Or,
tonight I could
step out onto the air,
climb it all the way
up to the moon.


Laura Thorp received her MFA in Poetry at North Carolina State University in 2015. She currently works in the English Department at the University of South Carolina where she is also earning her PhD in American Literature. This is her first poetry publication.