Cracks in the Heat Dome: a Poem

Gerald Jonas 08/23/26

Central Park 2026

Cracks in the Heat Dome

Brain-freezing anti-
dehydration neon-hued
sweet-ice-on-a-stick

Handholding, gaze-locked
canary-swallowing smiles
of the lately fucked

Great Dane, nose closed to
air-borne piss, longingly eyes
his treat dispenser

Six girls, six shades of
graduation out to give
the wide world a whirl

Father of two boys
teaching fútbol warmup drill:
“Knees up! Up! ¡Ale!”

Plugged into Park juice
Miles’ horn transposed to guitar–
one-man Kind of Blue

Gerald Jonas

Gerald Jonas is a senior editor at WhoWhatWhy and a writer whose work has appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times, as well as other journals large and small.

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