Amy Uyematsu (1947–2023) was born in Pasadena and majored in mathematics at UCLA. Her first poetry collection, 30 Miles from J-Town, received the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize. She published several other collections, including That Blue Trickster Time (What Books, 2022), Stone Bow Prayer, and The Yellow Door. Active in the development of Asian American studies at UCLA, Uyematsu coedited the widely used anthology Roots: An Asian American Reader.

Heat

by Amy Uyematsu

It is still not summer
but it’s too hot to sleep.
The same bird screeches
just outside our bedroom window.
Both of us recognize its cry,
that insistent chirping which kept us
awake so many nights last summer.

People on couch
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