Conflagration

Great swathes of central Oregon ablaze,
a million acres, near as we can tell.
Horizons dwindle in this toxic haze;
myopically, we navigate through Hell.
Fire policies embraced in 1910
that felt so forward-looking, now seem cruel.
We've queued the same catastrophe again
Suppressing every fire, we banked up fuel.
A managed forest, leaving room to drive
more like the climax woodland long before,
might flare up briefly, yet go on to thrive.
Instead, each August smells like baleful war.
Until--improbably--we really learn
we'll build more wooden houses, and they'll burn.

Fire season

Dim, bleary orange smudge, not even round
just hints the sun's position in the sky.
In parody of snow; hot ash drifts down;
from day to day, we live by AQI.
No glint of older starlight's getting through;
this pressure cooker's lid's been torqued down tight.
The mind denies that skies had once been blue,
when all the palette's sepia, and white.
The atmosphere of Mordor sears and chokes,
as if Orodruin were belching forth
particulates and noxious plumes of smoke,
this time not from the East, but from the North.
Four seasons filled the sum of my desire;
this fifth's a crock of ashes, smoke, and fire.

Heat Dome

half idaho's ablaze; its filth's spewed wide;
particulates too small to settle down
from Puget Sound to Continent's Divide
paint skies like Mordor's many shades of brown.
All outdoor sports events must be deferred;
asthmatics struggle for their every breath.
A year of pulmonary wear's incurred
for every week we're casting dice with Death.
Each photon intercepted overhead
destroys the lapse-rate soaring pilots love.
Black-body shifted down to bleary red
the atmosphere's still warmed, but from above.
Grim legacy from when the West was cool/\
presents a terrifying pool of fuel.

allegiances

The Trump administration shows disdain
for California, and the whole WestCoast.
When only Democrats are into trains
our high-speed-rail initiative is toast.
For Russian forestfires, Trump offers aid
but Californians hear another tune.
Where Spring's green grasslands lose their sheen and fade
Trump sends the victims prayers, and rakes, and brooms.
Unless your state's declared a "battleground"
Trump's strategists won't send a single cent.
He'll shed no tear to burn it to the ground:
if you're not Red, he's not your president.
The hyper-partisan Newt Gingrich dreamed
is even more horrific than he'd seemed.

alternative facts

Trump knows Sean Hannity will have his back
no matter how egregious the mistake.
Each criticism prompts a new attack
about how Californians need to rake.
Finns know his English comprehension's weak
and he'll confabulate to fill all gaps.
But it's the only language he can speak,
so they use little words, in solid CAPS.
Far from the values of their distant youth,
sealed echo-chamber parroting Trump's views
staunch partisans, convinced they own the Truth
subscribe to Hannity instead of news.
Republics need their citizens to care
about the truth, no less than birds need air.

Shemini II

the gold menorah's holy through and through
a symbol of  the tabernacle rites
 illuminating, for one vested Jew
the pomp and ceremony at their heights

combustion thereon's just a flame profane
ignited ere the Presence there abode
relit each eventide come sun or rain
to execute the Levitical code
mizbeach gets ignition from on High
that wasn't struck by any mortal hand
the flame the Levites never must let die
the Sanctuary's most enduring brand
distinctive fires the Cohanim arrange
and who's to say which one of them is "strange"       

aish zarah

the gold menorah's holy through and through
a symbol of the tabernacle cult
 illuminating for one vested Jew
exactly what it is that deus vult
combustion thereon's just a flame profane
ignited ere the Presence there abode
relit each eventide come sun or rain
to execute the Levitical code
mizbeach gets ignition from on High
that wasn't struck by any mortal hand
the flame the Levites must never let die
the Sanctuary's most enduring brand
distinctive fires the Cohanim arrange
and who's to say which one of them is "strange"