Before respite from temperate weather today May21st...

after umpteenth heat wave 
cooked since onset of summer

sizzled Delaware Valley 
a few yesterdays ago
before and including May 20th, 2026.

Said geographical area composed of counties

located in Southeastern Pennsylvania,

South Jersey, Delaware, and

Eastern Shore of Maryland.

and in general a massive,

early-season heat dome

blanketed much

of the Eastern United States,

bringing widespread heat advisories

and potentially seedy 
disc com bob yule hated 
record-breaking temperatures,

whereat tens of millions of people

experienced dangerous

"feels-like" conditions

and high temperatures from the
Mid-Atlantic up into New England.

Sweltering temperatures

figuratively gripped human zoo

bipedal hominids (yours truly,

an olive - garden variety simian)

seek much sought after shade
under whirled wide webbed yew

offered protection from the sheltering sky, 
which heavenly reflection within

shining sea witnessed wahoo,
whereat fisherman angling

to encompass vantage point to view

how flora and fauna cook née stew
scorched wildlife

postpone impossible mission

to search and rescue

despite bucket brigade lined in a queue
to stanch imminent wildfires
sparked by lightning striking

dry as kindling tinder

linkedin with El Niño and climate change 
omnipresent phenomenon offered preview,
and for the yet to be born Homo sapiens sapiens 
who will more easily 
adapt to an environment 
courtesy survival of the fittest
with a whole 
well mannered class of nouveau

species and genus and 
some donned in Moo moo

(or muumuu) most

commonly refers to

a loose, brightly colored, 
flowery dress of Hawaiian origin

also could be a playful term 
for a cow or a sound 
mimicking one, or serve 
as Caribbean slang for a silly person.

Weather records

(one for the books) charted mercury

rising hot enough to melt tar,

which indicates global warming

quite evident I fear,

what with mean temperatures

from January – May 2026 (thus far)
noticeably above norm for this time of year
prognosticators foretell forecasts

per this third planet from the star,
which inhabitants upon Mother Earth

burden of responsibility must bear
billions of people scrabbling
like cockroaches on a hot stove
many a Johnny come lately
"See how they run 
like pigs from a gun, 
see how they fly"
thru soupy wanton pollutants

as global warming 
ratchets up barometric millibar
dialing up operator 
viz greenhouse effect,

which serious scenario scientists fear
correlation from profligate offal ways

traced from freed genie in the jar,
no longer stretch of imagination

affects mankind didst sear
since row bucked day of reckoning,

whence Prometheus set stage for war
pitting mankind against Gaia

urgent messages we failed to hear.

Dystopian forecast impossible mission to avoid

since doomsday thoughts pervade consciousness

after perusing newsworthy information

globe trotting correspondents riskily employed

imperiling their life and limb to acquire

truthful natural and/or human interest stories

occurring across all 
four corners of oblate spheroid,

i.e. world wide web,

whereby Earth situated 
within nebulous void.

I try mine darnedest 
to maintain optimistic aire

all the while gleaning portending
apocalyptic intimations

courtesy human engineered phenomenon

all the more rhyme 
and reason to beware

Homo sapiens sapiens 
on brink of armageddon,

especially when trustworthy cognoscere
a Latin verb that translates to 
"to get to know," 
"to become acquainted with,
"or "to recognize"

painstakingly document their research

and without lacking hesitation declare

drastic paradigm shift away

from dependence on nuclear

energy and fossil fuels everywhere

else climate change could bitta bing

bitta bang hasten global warming,

where wicked watery wasteland

wreaked bleak soggy frontier

backed by popular demand

majority trumpets grandpoobear

for president, he 
who with coiffed, 
donned, and groomed hair

actually he got bewigged courtesy fake

orange toupee, which got blown away

while he hoisted himself

with his own petard.

Imagine if ye will - one immense

ferocious geographical, diametrical,

and cosmological phenomena

opposite that of Polar Vortex

(perhaps an apropos

nom de plume

would be Hades Furnace)

asphyxiating, clapping,

and encapsulating thee

entire oblate spheroid planet
where most if not all 
plants and animals 
will sizzle and fry
under an unforgiving
and unrelenting star.

Judgement day could be similarly 
hot as blazing saddles, or cold 
as a witch’s tat of a tit, 
which constant reminders 
during Spartan, slated singe shearing, 
stoic upbringing inured Lutherans 
to bite the figurative bullet 
(which melted in your mouth 
instead of your hands 
like soft melted caramel) 
during those scorching, sea-sickening, 
and sunstroke unbearable vaporizing winds.
 

No matter the near future 
promises refreshing temperatures 
considerably cooler to chill
holed deep within man cave,
(especially with central air conditioning 
set at sixty six degrees, 
and a box and desk fan 
blowing pleasant air), nevertheless 
I still lose out viz zit 
B52 headed by exertion 
as a zero sum plain game.

Just look back at the darkening sky 
yesterday at seventeen hundred hours 
where a fast moving 
cold front zipped at lightspeed,
and noticeable relief already 
sundered with lightning speed
bowed Cold Sassy Tree
by Olive Ann Burns
will plainly be in sight
requiring me to keep 
modifying the poem 
impossible aery mission 
to keep readers informed 
how the weather turns on a dime.