Fire Owl - Jane Carpenter

[Larry Robinson]

Fire Owl 
 
Small feathered beacon in the sand 
A ring of flame glowing orange on the water’s surface 
The heat held barely at bay, as everything beneath the water rolls tighter in the shell 
while the fire lays waste to the hillside and moves south 
 
Singed in the flurry upwards, the tempest striking like an unseen match 
The owl stares down at a world on fire 
flesh beneath feather flaring red the ground shifting 
as it melts down to rivers of steel and glass 
 
The landmarks gone 
Birds of prey and scavengers alike are wiped from the sky 
There is only the rolling black smoke and scorching wind 
the crackling, licking flames below swallowing the landscape whole 
 
Then you spot a jagged migration 
dropping like a single arrow through the wall of flame 
Horses plummeting down a rock strewn canyon
 leaving a wayward funnel of dust in their wake 
 
Humans and animals cascading to the sea. 
The air off the ocean blowing cool and fine; 
a curtain of respite from the hell fire 
 
The sand rises to meet you 
as you drop with the prevailing current 
your ears flapping in frenzy 
while the sun drops through the smoke smoldering gold 
and horses thunder onto the beach 
 
Above, the fire hurtles to the highway,  
taking everything in its path, 
behind it, a long trail of embers rising to the tree line 
as you take it all in with an unflinching gaze  
 
An owl’s trauma 
To have seen, to have nearly been seared from the sky,  
To now be wary while waiting for loft. 
 
To find the way back 
to a life now gone. 
 
To forever be reminded of the sand.

	- Jane Carpenter

       
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