mowing the lawn

It was about 2004 or 2005 in the summer, a scorching hot day and my Dad got me to mow the lawn. I put on the old sneakers and it took forever to rev up the mower and then it was going and it was so hot. Pushing the machine over grass. Somehow time kind of messed up and I started mowing the grass forever. It was like an unending loop. I am still back there mowing the grass. Sun so bright and hot shining like a white tower crashing out of the sky. The sky around it is so blue and white with cottony clouds.

Time messed up and I mowed the lawn forever. I barely escaped. Even now sometimes I open a door and almost fall back into mowing the lawn. A few times when tying my shoes the laces became pull cords. Running down the stairs of my apartment late for work I stepped out the door and was in my parents backyard, smell of gasoline, old sneakers on my feet. Mowing the lawn. I'm 18 again and mowing the lawn. Awkward bones stick out of me and tangle up traffic as I mow the patch of lawn next to the road. The mushy yellow of dandelions gets under my eyes and time is messed up. I'm mowing the lawn forever.

I'm stepping through the cool kitchen, sunlight is spotting through the blinds and kissing the floor. I put my hot face against the screen of the three setting house fan and its whirling blades. Sweat evaporates off my face, from above my lip and out of my hair. The fan feeds me like a mother bird regurgitating food to its young. I swallow and point my beak at the fan. It was so hot - I had been mowing the lawn forever. The burning white tower fell from the blue sky and scraped my flesh.