The Sky Is a Fierce Orange Red

California and Colorado are burning up. Millions of acres gone, wildlife displaced and misplaced. Sixty people are missing. A one year old died yesterday. The sky is fierce, orange red, a hostile warning to evacuate. Why didn’t they leave sooner? We ask when we hear the horror stories. They were optimists, hoping things would get better, of course. Optimists sometimes stay too late, hanging on to hope, role modeling. It is terrifying to me that California and Colorado are both on fire. Boggling my mind for what else do we have to endure? The corona virus was not enough? Unbelievable. I see the orange red sky, and I decide what I must take. Hoping I will not take so long packing that I cannot get out. Like so many others who waited too long.