Heavy

The air around here is heavy today.

Heavy with late-summer humidity,
August dripping into September
With the thickness of atmosphere
Filling my nose and sinuses.

And it is marching band season,
and football;
soccer, fall plays,
band concerts, college applications,
new lockers, old teachers,
textbooks and backpacks and schedules
all alike and heavy.

We spill into autumn
with the baggage of summer
strapped to our backs
as we enter this year's season of change

And all around,
nothing feels quite as settled
as we thought.

It is after Labor Day,
and the air around me settles thick,
my breath laborious,
this season as heavy
as a water balloon ready to be thrown
or a skipped rock sinking into a lake
or a pregnant belly waiting for new life.