OPTIONAL POETRY

The fires flowed together here: blown down dry canyons, antithesis of waterbut moving not unlike it—the confluence in conflagration. With devastationsometimes it’s hard to findthe right word, to capture capricious natures,fire casting a permanent shadowwith such arbitrary borders— remaining pines, firs, and hemlockall shocked prematurely orange—guilt of the survivor. Consumed by the Chiwaukumthis land can speakfor itself, litter and understory erased, branches incinerated to generate space,trunks turned ink-black, the blank slate hillside stands still and staid and states: I […]