Ash Migration - Michael Shapiro

[Lawrence Robinson]

Ash Migration



With every breath I take

I inhale the ash of homes

I breathe in the trees that exhaled oxygen

and gave birds a place to rest

I inhale the Safeway, the Taco Bell

that exploded in the dead of night

and the remains of squirrels and spiders and grasshoppers

and of people who had nowhere to run

 

A hundred miles from the fire

There’s not a cloud in the sky

Yet it’s still gray. And cold.

Two small birds chatter outside my office

They can’t stay inside today, 

or wear masks to filter the air

 

A year ago the smoke came from our county

The pall it created spread thick and wide

Today we breathe in misery from far away

The singed dreams of our neighbors

Knowing that nothing will ever be as it was

But that from the ashes, springs renewal 

 

	- Michael Shapiro
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/poetrylovers/attachments/20250215/ccec9374/attachment.htm>