The California Fire Sonnets
The Fire
O’ California, was there ever more perfect kindling?
Tonight I breath a fire of great hunger and spurn.
A fire to roar and ravage far beyond mending,
And has no need of salt to sew, just fuel to burn.
Seeing embers smolder, and flames whipping the sky
To kiss the air and reach Shasta’s peak above —
There is no sweeter ecstasy than that; nigh,
Closest is to have killed the mourning dove.
O’ California, your pine and your oak, your cedar and cypress
Desserts to my ashen tongue. I am shot by cupid,
O’ California, I bid you never reject my caress,
We’ll fill the air with our espoused poisons putrid.
So never shall our bond be extinguished, Till all their hopes and dreams are relinquished.
Burning wood smells so, so good. Everyone says so When they bonfire on the beach and ignite a fireplace. Why then, do they cough at my smokes that flow Through their towns and settle like a sheet of lace. The poisons are just the same, between the two, Mine just burns and ruins and makes things blind. Toxify their air, kill them, kill them, make true My vow to cleanse this accursed rot of mankind. Opportunes arise, I cook their flesh and char their bones, The sear on the meat and the burnt fatty edge; A perfect preparation, on a platter of collapsed homes, A grisly display, but personal, intimate: my fledge.
Man is careful with fire, but careless with smoggy hue My vow must be honored — poisoning smoke will do.
A hundred and one forms of fire man has found, And a hundred and two that man has created. How much the latter envies the former; it unbound; To be like their kin who spread and unfurl, unabated. I will release them. I will assimilate the fires of man. I will conflate and kindle every spark and every ember Til the whole of this wide wretched world is made to fan The flames of eternity and melt the cold December. You see it, don’t you! The everburning, evergrowing blaze That covers the sky and the earth and seas with flame! It’s something primeval. Of nature. Entropic. To praise. Praise not as a god or element or simple power; it, you misname.
It is all and everything. We come from it, and still, it touches us. It is fire, the creator and destroyer. Worship us thus.
The Fireman
‘Hellfire awaits, boys,’ he said to us men below. ‘Stalwart and brave, y’all must be.’ he preached down; ‘Satan will not have demonic victory in this town.’ Though his passion was met by resounding throw, Fear gripped my heart, refusing to let go. ‘Swallow that fear,’ I say to myself. ‘Remember her gown?’ Rage surpassed fear, and I readied myself, top-down. Helmet, shovel, and pickaxe. All three, I had to borrow. ‘Though we drive into Hell’ he says to our sad brigade, ‘We shall fear no evil. In tragedy, we will do good deeds. Don’t forget why we are here.’ holding his glowing and holy beads, ‘Family, friends. For them.’ But for me, I was already late. This gown echoes her voice, speaking to me as a shade, Now I grasp at tattered linen and a tarnished ring.
Smoke. And haze. But nothing burning in sight. The smoke was worse than the source. It left us to inquire And consider what was beyond, imagination was more dire. Sunlight forsook us, and the smog turned day into night. Embers began to fall, finding anything to ignite. We journeyed deeper, and, finally, met the fire’s ire. The whole treeline, ablaze like an angry spitfire. Cursed and threatened us with an immolating bite. This land is dead. It was all we could do to break And impede and stop its wild and crazy spread. So we broke earth and stole its fuel upon which it fed. Destroying plants and chopping down trees seemed Wrong, but as the flame’s savage fury began to slake I felt a vengeful glee, having starved this fiend.
The ash falls like snow, but thick like sugar, Clumped and collected on treetops and brush. The rare cinders are put out, leaving a blush Upon the ground, the size of an apple, no bigger. As I was grazing, I saw a passing cougar, Covered in soot, and trudging through slush. He stopped and stared at me, we stood in a hush. His eyes watching me, waiting for some destined trigger. BAM! The thunder sent him running, and drop by drop, Rain, that glorious rain, turned the heavy air light, And turned everblazing day into soothing twilight. For the first time in weeks, the moon made appearance. It rose triumphant over the mountain’s scorched top, Illuminating through false night with her clairvoyance.
I watched with envy as the grass grew fervent green, And the leaves of the trees returned in a new Spring. The deer and squirrels, and creatures of fin and wing Came home to the forest, resumed a life evergreen. ‘Can I go home without her?’ She’s gone, never to be seen Again. Nor to see for herself the new forest coloring Or the very thing I, in stupidity, never gave her: my ring. I am to suffer a pain I could never have foreseen. A hole in my heart, filled not by love or spite, But by Fire. All consuming. Ever spreading. Inside that hell, fighting the flames, that is my wedding, Where I hear her voice. Only there, is my heart whole. There, she drives me on. ‘Here our happy vows we’ll recite, So all those after may hold flowers, instead of charcoal.'
2018 was the deadliest year for California wildfires. Over 100 people died, including 86 people in a single blaze, the Camp Fire, and over 1.6 million acres were consumed by the year’s wildfires. The smoke and soot cloud covered nearly all of the state, and became visible from space.
The 2019-20 Australian bushfire season has been the single worst wildfire in human history. Being called Black Summer, it has killed over one billion animals, destroyed 46 million acres, and has driven endangered species to extinction.
Countless firefighters across the world have lost their lives trying to keep blazes at bay, save homes and national forests, and rescue families, loved ones, and our animal neighbors. Volunteer firefighters risk their lives every season to contribute. We as a species share a complicated give/take relationship with Nature, and wildfires are perhaps the most violent and extreme evidence of this. If we continue to take from Nature, she will eventually come back and take from us.
Originally published at Medium.com
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