We did end up getting real rain yesterday morning, an unexpected boon, and now the weather has shifted and I've woken to a much cooler world. Outside, in the dark, a passing train slowly hoots; car tires swish past; then silence falls again, a silence that is not silence, the creak of cicadas, the rustle of leaves, the far-off mutter of interstate traffic.

Yesterday I worked and panted and worked and panted, and I did manage to finish the bulk of that hard editing project. There are a few loose ends to tie, but it should be off my desk today. What a relief. In the meantime, the boy arrived last night, the groundhog decimated my kale, the neighbor's cat got lost and then reappeared, the Red Sox hit a grand slam, Trump's lawyers were idiots, and I made chocolate pudding.

One of these days I might work on a poem again. You never know.