mid-September the heat the sun five months, no rain our dry, dry land we’re on edge with threat of fire my phone shrills that ding a real-time app blaze in our county thirty miles east first relief then shame not close to us but endangers some with two legs four legs wings
Relief...then shame. So true. In 1991, my parents' home in Oakland burned to the ground. When my mom first saw the ruins, she stood there with a smile, "Oh, I am so glad that Mrs. H's house didn't burn! Her daughter is pregnant, you know." I didn't know, but I did see that despite her loss (total)my mother's main emotion was relief for her neighbor.
There is also survivor's guilt, which we saw in the Angora fire at Tahoe as the fire hopscotched through dense neighborhoods, selecting the homes that would become ash, leaving a few untouched. Their house remained...but quickly following the relief was the fact that a house alone does not make a home.
Relief...then shame. So true. In 1991, my parents' home in Oakland burned to the ground. When my mom first saw the ruins, she stood there with a smile, "Oh, I am so glad that Mrs. H's house didn't burn! Her daughter is pregnant, you know." I didn't know, but I did see that despite her loss (total)my mother's main emotion was relief for her neighbor.
Wow.
There is also survivor's guilt, which we saw in the Angora fire at Tahoe as the fire hopscotched through dense neighborhoods, selecting the homes that would become ash, leaving a few untouched. Their house remained...but quickly following the relief was the fact that a house alone does not make a home.
Fire season midst.
Spared so far, fortunate us.
That is, some of us.
Exactly.
Our home globe, febrile.
Ashes turn into compost.
Will flames be fulcrum?
...
Tough times for Earthlings.
Firestorms now, more coming.
Howl, hug, heave, heed, hope?