Heat was the main reason,

more than any other season,

summer held its own special horrors,

a single word would not be uttered,

an old woman in the clutter

of a basement apartment,

number 2-B,

when the door opened, flies would flee,

she had no face,

it was a decomposed case,

cooking in her own oil for a week,

her flesh would reek,

as her life gave way

to a rolling mass of maggots,

ghosts would shout and scream,

as the curses rise and fall,

a haunting dream,

as darkness made its call,

and the fear remained there,

with the temperature

in stagnant, fetid air.