A Time No Weather Came

( after Langston Hughes )  

 
It was a time no weather came,  
The truant children all ran out.  
The hydrant blasts like summer rain  
As joyful bodies leapt about.  
 
From windowed tenements’ hot air,  
It was a time no weather came.  
Grandmother’s rocking in a chair,  
A ceiling fan slow-turns in pain.  
 
So wasn’t breeze or wind to tame  
And not a bird flew in the sky.  
It was a time no weather came,  
For days my tan skin never dried.  
 
A busy cricket through the night  
Is chirping to his lady flame,  
From city towers’ lofty heights;  
It was a time no weather came.