Poems as Maps II

Letter from a heat wave

This winter, we present a second special series on poems that can be read as maps. Read the introduction to this series.

Color photograph of rainbow over lowrise city skyline.
Chicago, 2021. [Fred Schmalz]

my brother with the smoke parked

ominous over the city

dew droplets caught among the chain link

 

fence diamonds sink into themselves

there is so much earth around us

we barely register

 

until one of us fires a blender

or tunes a radio to a signal

far enough to feel

 

improbable in its reception

but there it is bisecting morning air

a grace note purely executed

 

on the brink of breaking open

I greet grief like the chicks in their nest

my mouth to the sky

 

which both fits and starts anew

why else suffer this heat and ill will

if not to be fed

About the Series: Poems as Maps

Poems as Maps II, curated by G.E. Patterson, features work by Joshua Bennett, Jos Charles, Ernestine Hayes, Tanya Larkin, Aditi Machado, Chris Martin, Na Mee, Naomi Shihab Nye, Roger Reeves, Fred Schmalz, Prageeta Sharma, and Moheb Soliman.

Poems as Maps I, curated by Taiyon J. Coleman, includes work by Elizabeth Alexander, Bao Phi, Joanne Diaz, Nikky Finney, Sean Hill, Andrea Jenkins, Douglas Kearney, J. Drew Lanham, Claudia Rankine, Barbara Jane Reyes, Sun Yung Shin, Evie Shockley, and Ocean Vuong.

Cite
Fred Schmalz, “Letter from a heat wave,” Places Journal, January 2024. Accessed 03 Jun 2026. <>

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