Saturday, November 8, 2014

Could We Learn to Coexist with Wildfires?

Behind Old Smokey
by Rachel Hoyt

image by Keerati via freedigitalphotos.net


When they named me Smokey,
Do you think they knew?
Did they set that spark free
To shift blame to you?
What if mitigation
Is just a nice myth?
What if propagation
Is every thing's pith?
Word around the forest
Is that you don't know -
Flames don't die, they just rest
While smoke steals the show.

Copyright © 2014 Rachel Hoyt. All rights reserved.



(Some researchers at UCSB inspired me
to wonder what Smokey would say if he could see
the results of their wildfire study.)

3 comments:

  1. We live at the leisure of nature
    As much as we hate to admit
    The world burns before us and after us
    But that doesn't mean we will quit.

    If a spark starts a blaze
    Sometimes it's from God
    Sometimes it's biker with a gas powered hod,
    A cigarette, lightening, Johnny Cash's truck
    What's ash in the end is a matter of luck

    The animals run, or fly if the can
    The Hotshots scramble, the news cams pan
    The Scientists scribble
    The Honchos debate, "should we save area z?"
    What is fate?

    If it sweeps up the Riviera
    We will send in an extra team.
    If the Hurricane Deck is rolling in red
    It's a bit more complex than it seems

    You can burn all the facts like cordwood
    But it all comes down to this
    If we are the one's with feet to the flame
    Somebody's gonna pay for it

    This doesn't mean for a moment
    That you shouldn't be careful with matches
    On a personal level no one deserves
    The shame and guilt that attaches

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you Rachel, you inspire me

    ReplyDelete

Rhyming or not, I would like a lot to hear the thoughts my words brought...