For the dverse prompt—pepper
Salty air hangs heavy in the heat,
water sparkles with savagery,
and in bright pools of sun,
peppered with creeping life,
starlings peck and prod.
Heat beats down,
a musty blanket,
full of dust motes flying,
trying to escape.
I watch the river evaporate.
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Jane Dougherty Writes 
I hadn’t thought of the river evaporating before, but I suspect some of the water does enter the atmosphere with heat although a lot goes to the ocean. I liked the dust motes trying to escape from drowning in the river if I understood it correctly.
They could have been escaping from drowning, or more generally just smothering beneath the heat. It’s so hot today I really did wonder what was stopping the river just disappearing in a hiss of steam 🙂
There’s a raw silence to the scene.. nature at work!
Raw is the word. Like having your skin peeled off slowly.
The image makes the poem tenfolds stronger. You can just imagine the river trying to evaporate in the heat.
On days like this I wonder why it doesn’t, truly. Thank you 🙂
The contrast in the “water sparkles with savagery” lines goes so well with the “escaping dust motes”, serene yet intense. This is lovely.
Thank you! The heat is fierce today and we know how little protection we have from the sun’s rays. Magnified by the water, glass, metallic surfaces, it feels quite frightening.
I like the way you seasoned your poem with with imagery! A poem that sees, hears, and tastes.
Comes in several flavours and colours. Sings too in three languages 🙂 Glad you liked it, Charley.
You capture the essence of a stifling hot summer day so skillfully. Kudos!
Thank you, Beverly 🙂
Wow! Such a vivid picture and an interesting take on the prompt. Well done! I have to get started soon!
Do! I’ll be back to catch up on the other entries.
So intense, Jane. I like the way you used peppered–but along with salty. Nice touch! 🙂
I hope it cools off for you. No dry heat here. It’s hot and humid with severe thunderstorms expected later.
You know something, I hadn’t even noticed the salt and pepper thing. Shows what an attentive reader you are! Sultry heat is too much. I think ours is fairly dry despite being close to the ocean. The ‘weather’ comes up from Africa which is pretty dry 🙂
That’s so funny you didn’t notice the salt and pepper. I thought it was deliberate. 🙂 We’ve had some beautiful days and nights lately, but then we get the humid, icky stuff, too.
Honest, I didn’t. The oracle maybe still has her claws in me, suggesting images. Hope the icky blows away soon 🙂
Thanks. I hope it does, too, but not with too much force! Forecast was saying “violent storms.”
I hope not! When you get storms, you don’t mess about.
Round one is done, but I think there are more to come!
It’s only June. I expect August could be a bit turbulent 🙂
It turned out to be not so awful. A lot of rain, and a bit of thunder and lightning. Power still on. 🙂
Ready for round two 🙂
No! It’s beautiful today!
Yay!
Also, now I’m thinking Oracle claws. Hmmm. . .
She can be pretty nasty sometimes.
I love the way you’ve incorporated salt with pepper, Jane! The opening lines are so vivid with sparkling salty water and sunshine, which turn into muggy heat in stanza two – it describes just how I felt this afternoon:
‘Heat beats down,
a musty blanket’
and then the reminder of what heat can do in the final line.
We weren’t expecting 38°C. The forecast was for hot but not quite so hot. We’re getting the same tomorrow and slightly hotter on Wednesday. The river might not make it to the end of the week!
It as 34 degrees in Norfolk today and I just hope the Broads hold out!
Is that a record for June? At least you’re surrounded by water, unless it evaporates…
This brought to mind the reality of last year, after 5 years of drought, as I watched the Truckee River, a block from me evaporate to a trickle. Now, after a year of overly-abundant precipitation, it is roaring.
We never have your extremes. But it does get hot here in summer, over 100°F today and it’s going to get hotter by mid week. Too hot for June. Of course, climate change is a myth…
“water sparkles with savagery” … This is my favorite line, especially how it ties in with the last line.
Thank you! It is a cruel sun that beats so hard. I don’t know how the river stands it.
She’ll probably outsmart him in one way or another eventually.
She has done so far 🙂
Enjoy how the sun impacts each thing that you bring into view. Wonderful imagery, Jane!
Thanks Jilly 🙂 The sun and the heat are oppressive at the moment. Everything is so still and dry.
Let’s see – some advice from a Floridian (where it is hot most of the time) – eat ice cream and sit naked in front of a fan?
Too many neighbours 🙂
HA! Curtains 🙂
I could close the shutters, I suppose…
I marvel the energy of water in the river, and then the slow evaporation ~ Love the use of : peppered with creeping life~
Thanks Grace. Pepper doesn’t evoke much else for me. Not in poetry anyway 🙂
Love all the life in the water… we should be in awe of all the life it gives.
We feel the heat of the sun but we treat it as an inconvenience, not as a life-giving force. We’ve lost our way somewhere, I fear.
My goodness this is good!❤️ Especially love; “water sparkles with savagery.” Powerful write!❤️
Thank you, Sanaa 🙂 I’m pleased you liked it.
Oh, I feel the heat. Subtle use of the prompt word, lovely piece.
Thanks Sarah 🙂 I think the whole world (except the Aussies of course) is feeling the heat.
It sounds like a little microcosm of life. I like the dust motes making up your pepper prompt
I’ve been watching this year’s clutch of starling chicks grow, and when you see how they behave, like obnoxious, demanding brats, it’s not surprising they grow up to be noisy brawlers. 🙂
I liked your poem
Thank you, Walter 🙂
I can feel the oppression in every line and your absolute resentment of it. Great poem!
I’m glad you picked up on my mood 🙂 It’s too harsh. Nothing likes it.
Lovely quadrille.
Thank you 🙂
I loved the slant rhyme of “escape” and “evaporate.”
Thank you! I didn’t know that term, ‘slant rhyme’. I’ll remember it 🙂
I hope the rivers don’t evaporate, we need water for survival.
It will take more than a heat wave to do that, thank goodness!
Nature at her raw and savage best. I love the atmosphere and music of this poem, Jane. Nicely done 🙂
Thank you, Ryan! Glad you liked it 🙂
I really was expecting a peppery crow…at least, starlings were heard!
Starlings are certainly heard! The crows seem to have piped down. Maybe it’s too hot.
“Water sparkles with savagery”!!!
🙂
Great imagery here, Jane.
Thanks Sarah 🙂
Fabulous imagery! Especially how you used peppered…and those flying dust motes!
Thanks Lillian. Perhaps if it wasn’t so hot I’d have thought of more domestic, indoor images 🙂
What a heat wave! I enjoyed your images.
Thanks Janice 🙂 It’s only set to last another few days then back to normal.
That’s good to know :)) we’ve been spared so far ….
I hope your good luck continues 🙂
Thanks :))
My eyes got blazed from the poem. I like how the aquatic lives and the aerial world were connected by the evaporation. I didn’t see it coming, but when I did, it felt naturally complete. Anyway, do stay hydrated in this heat!
Thanks Colin 🙂 Everything is connected, whatever Trump and his flat earth brigade say. All connected and affected by the elements and our manipulation of nature. We’re drinking what we can before it all evaporates 🙂
You’re right, Jane. And, environmental consequences aside, it was an utter disregard of democracy. I’m nevertheless hopeful to see the Climate Alliance is garnering momentum. Time will prove who’s right … though the river may not be waiting that long.
That is the problem. If we have to wait for the White House to be washed away by a tsunami before the most powerful (and most idiotic) world leader takes notice, it will be too late.
Great write with really vivid imagery. I’ve been there, like a jungle in the heat.
Thank you! It hasn’t let up yet…
The heat is so bad on some days, we really do wonder if all our rivers are going to dry up.
The difference in the water level between the river during the spring rains and now is frightening. Where did it all go?