A friend of mine recently took some pictures of the aftermath of wildfires in Colorado. His simple title to the series, “Char,” seemed to be a perfect metaphor for the destruction that some who went beyond peaceful protest felt they needed to inflict upon this country to make people see their viewpoint. Thanks to David Hartley for inspiration.
In the land where
Roosevelt meets the Arapaho,
Cameron Peak is ablaze—
the spark still a mystery,
but the understory,
the down and dead,
the beetle-killed lodgepole
have raged for three months
until 200,000 acres
are nothing but char.
I stand here a moment
on Pingree Park Road,
staring out at the devastation,
admiring the silence
of the aftermath,
wisps of smoldering grass
still rising from the ash.
This was to be
about the future and direction,
a correction or even
a validation,
but we have
burned this mother down,
we have shaken loose the needles,
aimed the flame towards
high elevation conifers
to let them rage,
let them rage and come down
Until the mighty
are the same as duff,
and the smoke clears
to even darker clouds
coming from the mountains.
| Copyright © 2020 by Maik Strosahl Michael E. Strosahl has focused on poetry for over twenty years, during which time he served a term as President of the Poetry Society of Indiana. He also dabbles in short fiction and may be onto some ideas for a novel. He relocated to Jefferson City, Missouri, in 2018 and currently co-hosts a writers group there. In September 2020, he started the blog “Disturbing the Pond.” |
Maik, many thanks for another of your embracing poems of place and times. They and their author are much appreciated.
ReplyDeleteGreat lines--made you feel you were there:
ReplyDeletebut the understory,
the down and dead,
the beetle-killed lodgepole