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Cool Cloth On Aching Brow
 
Imagine how it feels
after walking barefoot for miles
on concrete set on fire
by a singeing sun.
Blisters glisten, ready to pop,
on six of your toes, but at last,
you come upon a stream.
Test it with a toe,
and find it cool.
 
Imagine how it feels
to try to fall asleep
in a too-close room.
It is summer.  No fan,
no air.  Stuffy
doesn’t begin to describe..
Turning your pillow,
you find it cool.
 
Imagine how it feels
to have the first drop of rain
after a drought spanning months
cool a spot above your brow,
or to hear that a loved one
who has been deathly ill
is coming around,
or to spoon with a lover
after eons of empty,
or discover you are right
after someone unkind
branded you the worst kind
of fool..
 
Imagine how it feels
after suffering agonizing pain
to breeze through an entire day
with scarcely a twinge.
Now imagine your Muse
gives you the gift of creating
a poem that fits
like your skin.  Then it gets
read.  People take care
to let you know
the poem also fits them.
All feel what you feel,
now and then.  
‘s to die for, this
kind of cool.
..

(c) Phyllis Jean Green, 2007