Heat Stroke

[billy]

i really enjoyed reading this. it's image rich and has a depth that allows the reader to enter the heat of it. just the one stumble for me, and i could be the one with the fault
great read.

The shadow’s message is night;
you are the sundial it follows all day,
measuring the searing earth silently, tick-tocks,
that echo in a fevered mind. the opening takes into the poem, slowly warning us

Heat hammers down nails
in sync with a faint heartbeat
through swathes of turbans,
with malaise eyes watch a papaya orange sun not sure about the enjambment, would "with malaise eyes" work better on the line above?
slice itself every stroke of the hour
to reveal beads of black seeds. the image of these 3 lines is exceptional.

The lengthening dark strip taunts,
moving in widening circles, waiting
until it’s twelve, when it condenses
into tiny black drops eddying
under camel leather slippers, to disappear
past thin soles in a toe-ring’s tinkle.

Children of the sun, reeling
under an almost-year-long-summer,
their feet pregnant with dark dreams
to lend to monsoon clouds. excellent close that has within it hope, the urge of the need to play in the rain from the children is palpable.

.