THE JULY DIATRIBE!

A visceral callout!

July, the slayer of my sunny June!
Good that you are crawling to your pit. Go away!
I did not say a word
When you became a noose around my sister’s neck
In a ghastly year that still eclipses my soul.
But when you snatched my last father
From this earth, I must scream!

July, you leak like a sodden tap!
You rot the walls of joy! You breed mildew!
You moss sunny memories!
You murder the sun, always!
You bringer of graves!
You tore precious daughters from the lap of Texas!
You leapt into the Atlantic, fomenting destruction!

You detonated Kamchatka!
You crept into Baba Yanga's dreams,
prying open her lurid visions,
and sending shivers up the spine of Japan!

You arrogant month!
Was the Yangtze not enough?
For eons you drowned China in rivers of yellow sorrow!
Now you summon tsunamis to the remotest of coasts!
You did not even respect skin!
You singed Turkey!
You set Europe ablaze in her own sweat!
You rained down UV daggers on sweet old men in Naples
And flower-like children in Paris playgrounds.

July! They named you for Caesar.
You were to be an empire of enlightenment, order, and reason!
But you did a backflip
and became another name for chaos!
You ushered the Dark Ages, by fire, plague, and sword!
You sent barbarians thundering at Rome’s gate!
You burnt every scroll in Alexandria,
Silencing Sappho, snuffing Hypatia,
Turning Aristotle's legacy to ash!

You b*****d month!
I'm happy to see your days dwindle,
To hear the clatter of your bones dragged out.
Let August rise now, let her lift her golden sword
And drive it straight through your unfeeling heart!
Let her burn your rotting crown!
Bury you in a shallow grave, so dogs play with your bones!

Go away, July!
Die off, but not before you're shamed
For all that you've decimated and undone!

Author's Note

Thank you for reading this rant!

Reviews

[jacob erin-cilberto]

This is one incredible journey with so many emotions running through it, hate, sadness, revenge, disgust. July, a month to remember with anything but fondness. I think August just may have a golden sword...
and if it uses it well, September may find itself with some peaceful dawns and even more peaceful dusks.
j.

[DIVYA]

Thank you dear Jacob....July was catastrophic this year and it has been a dark month often in my life. Thank you for your words of hope.

[John the Baptist]

Now I almost feel bad about celebrating the fourth. Of course, August is not all innocence, either. When I was a mental health worker, more people seemed to break down in February (the dead of winter) and August (the dog days). Also, the Japanese might not be August fans. Hiroshima and Nagasaki both occurred in that month.

[DIVYA]

Thank you John! What you said about August is very true. I always used to tell myself, when I die, it'll most certainly be in August. As for July, my most significant losses happened in it and so this rant was mostly personal and could be biased. And yes, Hiroshima and Nagasaki still shatter soul.

[Neha agrawal]

You’ve given July a voice, a shape, a shadow that we can all feel.

[DIVYA]

Thank you so much Neha!

[AJNJ]

Madam could you please add my list too? I'm mailing ti to you. It has some real bummers. Kudos!

[DIVYA]

AJ, I knew you'd like it and you did! Thanks a lot for reviewing this rant. Means so much to me.

[JMichael]

It looks like I will be joining the cult of denouncement against July from this month forth after the nasty time it has given me this year. Mostly I will probably just feel sorrow every time it comes around. My knives are firmly locked away and getting angry at it won’t change anything. It will now remain a cold month in the middle of our winter just now made even colder by losses incurred.

This is a powerful diatribe, full of anger and resentment, for a month on the calendar that just seems to create woe in our lives. Perhaps being named after Julius Caesar wasn’t such a stroke of luck after all. For like him, it leaves us reeling in agony, bloodied and abandoned upon the steps of our own lives.

[DIVYA]

Dear JMichael,

The losses this month has brought us are devastating. And the latest one has been such a blow! Trust it to happen in July. We sit there, looted, gutted, nursing that body blow. Knowing there's nothing we can do. And yes, everytime it comes, it will bring that sea of sorrow with it. Thank you so much for relating to this poem. I share your pain. ❤️