the fire spreads quickly
nothing can stand in its way
firemen are coming
asteroids descend
lava erupts from below
flood waters sweep clean
leaving traces of its stay
for wildfires to have its way
Two separate flames
flickering as one
dancing in the night
creating romance
The crisis in California is heartbreaking and it certainly is dire.
I donated $20.00 to the American Red Cross to help the victims of the wildfires.
I donated and I encourage you to donate too.
It will certainly be a kind thing for you to do.
The situation is horrible and there is no doubt.
Please donate to these people to help them out.
There’s children growing up that believe the stars
sound like crickets chirping,
for their only exposure to these sources of wonder
are through over-exposure to blue light and radio waves
and soundtracks overlaying simulations.
The night they know
is bright as day,
lit by “satellite internet constellations”
or fogged out by the price of progress.
They don’t understand what it is to stare upwards
and be humbled in awe.
That’s what’s wrong with men today;
they never look up, never gaze around.
They only march forward on a path
marked with dollars instead of footprints
and fail to take heed of the wails around them.
But at least one day, when
we’ve siphoned the earth dry to fuel
“achievements”
(greed),
when the cities are burning from the debts of desire,
the children will look up at the stars that aren’t stars
and hear real crickets chirping
and they won’t be afraid of the end.
"WILDFIRES"
Hark, supreme peril.
Breath upon an ashen heap.
Burning new growth.
Autumn's at the mercy of unscrupulous wildfire
A tornado igniting forest walls with leaves aswirl
Flames of colors rare radiant orange sapphire
On glowing wind-borne embers storm, they twirl
October fires, dubbed the season of the witch
Destroying two hundred thousand acres in route
An unmerciful fate leaving a scarred barren ditch
Fierce arid gusty storms are furnaces in this drought
An exploding tinderbox from hades whence it came
A raging menace, water and powder could not rescind
Cherished homes and lush land now go up in a flame
Engulfing the timbers like matches invoked by wild wind
Be warned all pyro’s, the witches of Witch Creek set on fire,
Their smoke will fill your mouth, to tell what you’ve done prior!
We bite the dust every morning,
spitting gray powder, like desperados.
Firebirds nosedive in forewarning,
perverting the trees into hell’s tornadoes.
We taste sooted smog on our tacky tongues,
dragging all our shadows of remorse.
Finding no habitat for our wheezing lungs,
we long for the rain’s fecund watercourse.
We find Death Valley spreading like a contagion,
and dodge parched patches, bruised and baked by sol.
So delirious our meandering, we know not our region,
our infernal night camps reek of cinder and wood coal.
We chant, not knowing the meaning of an arcane lyric,
unsure how to summon the recondite eidolon of Seth.
As city shells smolder, all chronic hearts await some mantic.
Surely hell will freeze over, so we wait with bated breath.
Today, our sun shone neath a haze
that blocked its rays.
Views disappeared;
the air looked weird.
The weather forecast sounded great;
blue skies, clear fate.
Stead, we were shroud
inside a cloud!
But, then I heard, as the news broke,
wildfires spread smoke
from West to East-
an airborne beast!
July 21, 2021
Contest: 12 Lines In Rhyme
Sponsor: Joseph May
Rhyme Scheme: aabb, ccdd, eeff
Syllable Count: 8,4,4,4, 8,4,4,4 8,4,4,4
Santa Ana winds
august temperatures climb
rampaging wildfires
Rampaging wildfires
crackling through brittle pines
nature's cleansing rush
Nature's cleansing rush
acres of barren parched earth
sadness in the wake.
written May 24, 2021
Until now, the skies were only blue or gray.
But today, wrathful Cacus set the sky ablaze.
Today, the spectral smoke choked ochre sky mirrors
exploding wildfires unleashed below.
Today the tarnished jaundice sky measures
the crumbling Constitutional edifices,
the raging roving injustice burning
everywhere across the land.
Today as thousands are driven
from their homes, the pestilence
spreads across the land,
killing hundreds of thousands.
Today the sooted grimy sky
reflects the deceitful lawless tyrant,
all his crooked crony stagehands,
his white nationalist army of tormentors,
as their raw sewage floods the rivers and streams
of our theories.
Today this climate rampage
has nothing to do with climate change.
We bask instead in the political climate
of aberrant delusions.
Today this inferno in the sky,
this ceiling of hellfire,
suffocates our oxygen of dreams.
Below, the Constitution provides
kindling for the flames
ingulfing our democracy,
the fuel for our conspiracy wildfire,
our rite of passage
to the underworld.
Published: Dissident Voice 10/18/2020
You extend the juiciest of apples before my eyes
Imploring, "Come closer, love, and have a bite"
Eden is lost to us and it's too late for compromise
I'll not be tempted to savor forbidden fruit tonight
Your eyes flow with the passion you're needing
this last somber night we'll be sharing our bed
Saying no to you wounds my heart to bleeding
But I cannot give in, allowing it to rule my head
Your eyes burn in wildfires of your great want
But what they're not asking is for me to forgive
Memories of this night, in my dreams will haunt
until the time I close my eyes and no longer live
Your eyes search mine, hoping love is still there
How arduous a task for me to turn and look away
I'll leave quietly before sunrise, with you unaware
I whispered, "I still love you," while asleep you lay
The flames heat up the city
California is in flames
devastating disaster
the sky is a smokey haze
traffic, evacuation
stadium as a shelter
Wildfires spreading out of hand