Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Controlled Burn

Prescribed by the forestry,
hundreds of square acres
smolder.

__________The smoke
rises and drifts to the South.
Sweat on his brow,

a man bows to the ditch
before him.
_____Flames, orange and wild,

lick the brush.
__________He feels a rush
of blood to his head.

His partner stares,
inferno-led,
_____fixed on a dead

squirrel not five yards
away.
_____The men stay

at a temporary camp.
Tonight they will rest,
but for now the sun

sparks in the sky,
_____a white-hot
__________arc lamp.

Black scraps run up --
_____ashes of burnt prayers --
__________to heaven.

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