When the bottom drops out of August when the bottom drops and the summer disc burns deep in its bed when nerves sing, blaze, and flame their circuit when the bottom of August sticks out and clouds above change shape when bodies inside spin and change shape the bottom falls and meaning peeks out with chagrin the hot skin of August no longer sending messages of summer birds no longer at rest when the winds pick up and the cool air is just behind it all the bottom of the news story reveals itself the story is cold
Peter GizziPeter Gizzi grew up in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. His poetry collections include The Outernationale (2007), Some Values of Landscape and Weather (2003), and a reprint of his first book, Periplum and Other Poems: 1987-1992 (2004). His honors include the Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets in 2004 and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation in 2005. He is also the editor of The House That Jack Built: The Collected Lectures of Jack Spicer (1998).