by Rémy Dambron
As the sound of our neighbor’s lawn
mower pierces the silence of the hellish
landscape forming just past our bedroom
window my wife and I exchange mirroring
glances of hostile befuddlement
maddened by this man’s unfathomable
indifference to the bewilderment of
smoke flowing freely into his eyes
and down deep into his lungs despite
wearing a confident smile as he strolls
absentmindedly through his yard
pushing that obnoxious gas powered
machine to shorten the small strip of
parched grass that faces our still baffled
faces now visibly posing the inevitable question
what in the actual fuck is happening?
We continue to watch in shock as I frantically
google the news desperate to confirm that
yes in fact there are wildfires blazing at
our city’s doorstep in addition to riots and
shootings and protests and looting and tagging
and militias immersed in science refuting and
that this conundrum of a man tending to his plot
amidst the infiltrating remains floating in from
burning homes incinerated cars perished
businesses lost livelihoods vanishing forests
and melted memories isn’t just symptomatic
of some feverish dream or drug-induced vision
or mystical illusion or some grave delusion but
that our mutual astonishment is actual credible
physical proof of the resilience of our little remaining
sanity.
landscape forming just past our bedroom
window my wife and I exchange mirroring
glances of hostile befuddlement
maddened by this man’s unfathomable
indifference to the bewilderment of
smoke flowing freely into his eyes
and down deep into his lungs despite
wearing a confident smile as he strolls
absentmindedly through his yard
pushing that obnoxious gas powered
machine to shorten the small strip of
parched grass that faces our still baffled
faces now visibly posing the inevitable question
what in the actual fuck is happening?
We continue to watch in shock as I frantically
google the news desperate to confirm that
yes in fact there are wildfires blazing at
our city’s doorstep in addition to riots and
shootings and protests and looting and tagging
and militias immersed in science refuting and
that this conundrum of a man tending to his plot
amidst the infiltrating remains floating in from
burning homes incinerated cars perished
businesses lost livelihoods vanishing forests
and melted memories isn’t just symptomatic
of some feverish dream or drug-induced vision
or mystical illusion or some grave delusion but
that our mutual astonishment is actual credible
physical proof of the resilience of our little remaining
sanity.
Rémy Dambron is an activist, environmentalist, and author based out of Portland, Oregon. His work has appeared in What Rough Beast, Writer's Resist, Poets Reading the News, and TheNewVerse.News, focusing largely on denouncing political corruption and advocating for social justice. Without the love and support of his wife Susan, he would not be the writer he is today.