Unheralded Effects of Climate Change

Weather’s too nice for Indiana—

all conversations have ground down.

Who can complain about sunshine

and highs in the seventies? This is August,

for cripes sake, and August should make dogs

have their days with mile-long tongues

and half-naked old men pumping sweat

over mats of gray chest hair while mowing

brown-burnt lawns. Not this year.

Maybe the climate changes paradise

the Midwest into California

dreams—if only the ocean would lap

rust-belt debris under its waves.

Weather’s too nice for Indiana,

but wait an hour, as they say,

it’ll revert so we can take comfort

under winter quilts of complaining.