Why this burning heat in the month of July

Which makes everyone perspires like the

Christmas turkey inside a hot ovum?

As everyone battles the sweat,

fanning themselves on the underground,

It comes back again and again cascading down

Their bodies in saltiness like the gushing Niagara.

Inside the anaerobic confines of the much

Squeezed carriages, passengers huddled together

And gasped for breath in the sultry afternoon of July.

Ken, if the Thames were emptied into every coach

With waters flooding the Underground

It yet cannot be compared to these sweats

Flowing down the bodies of passengers

In the hot summer of July 2006.

• JOHN ODEY ADUMA
• AUGUST 3, 2006.