The Wade Radford Archive

Summer Lovin’ 

(Featured in Pleasure and Pain) , By Wade Radford (22′)

We eat delicate flames before us, 

Amber lickers on dried oak, 

All the lights got snuffed around, 

And red hot embers fiercely blaze, 

We cauterise the wound a while, 

Out here in paradise gardens, 

and yet the wood starts its char, 

and we add more that’s yet to singe, 

Below the grasshoppers sound, 

Gentle night wind blows the rushes, 

The rat scurries from prejudice, 

The lamb sounds it’s arbitrary ‘baaa’, 

A moon has fallen from grace, 

Beautiful yet preposterously placed,

The moon is in our face, 

Moon and sizzling summer heat, 

The doors swing wide open to the hut, 

Sweaty drips and humid air escapes, 

Escapes into the night, 

Flees into the lighter air of eve, 

Yet metal still burns atop the structure, 

The tarmac sticky still to touch, 

Tires expand and exhale, 

Sunburst clouds run off to the hills, 

Still the fires crackles, 

Embers stolen by the breeze, 

I feel arms upon my bloated gut, 

Feel hairy arms wrap around my waist, 

Belly so vulnerable, 

Arms locked and I am encased, 

I made myself so vulnerable, 

and we shan’t wither in the waste, 

No words needed between us, 

Just crickets and the crackle, 

Just soft kisses on my back, 

Gentle tickles on my torso, 

Out here lost in the wild, 

Flames the only sign for miles, 

I wipe away yet more sweat, 

A taste of summer lovin’. 

Poems may not be republished or reproduced without written consent. Copyright Wade Zane 2023. Order original works at https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/wrzatwa