Words...

My eyes, running through the series of
pictures of fires gulping down the cities,
made my mind stop in its own track
and take a minute to gulp these tidings down.


Something like a sigh
started to creep up through the veins,
and was stopped by the mind
now running again, and was poured
back into my seething self…


For whom do I care?
Faraway people choking in thick
black smoke, for houses and families lost?


Have I not had my share of sighs?


Right across the street down there
a hundred have-nots lie choking
in this clear blue night.
No known fire
has burned their homes, and yet…

A few walks ahead,
keen and painted, and yet unnoticed
in the cornucopia of city colors,
two women with lush red lips
awaiting customers stand.
No known fire
has burned their hopes, and yet…


Something like a tear
started to climb up the throat,
and stopped in its way
as the black clouds from San Diego
filled the news clips in my hand,
and filled my soul again…


I saw the fire feasting on---
the flames dancing
over blazing houses,
over blankets worn to rags,
over nails painted red…


The sighs came then,
a single tear fell down, upon
the open newsprint shots,
in a desperate hope to douse
all the fires in the world
burning souls.
[On the wildfire in Southern California]
Symphony
24 October 'o7
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