The world, the west, is on fire

Vancouver to Yosemite,
     all tinder, alight

 

Halfway between, we must breathe

What air there is, what we are given

 

When we speak, smoke is what we say

And so we have stopped speaking

 

The mountains are gone, the valley

Through the windows, everything

 

The smoke is where we live now

What we breathe in, and then out

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The Language of Smoke

© Pepper Trail

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