One might think that in an area
Used to the force of hurricanes,
Uncontrolled forces of wind and water
That wreak havoc on the land
Might better understand
The paradox of their mission.
Setting a “controlled burn”
That’s how it started, they say.
To burn four hundred wooded acres
to lessen fire’s damage.
“They” ignited the flames, watched, and left,
not realizing until the next day
embers had reignited, blazed hot
and traveled on the wind
in the night.
Now, as I write,
a week later,
almost sixteen thousand acres of
woodland are now ash. Countless
animals, birds have lost homes,
people not as yet,
but the flames are still unextinguished,
blaze still only partly contained.
Red suns at dawn and dusk are beautiful
but terrifying at the same time.
Wind, fire, water, earth—
four elements have already shown themselves
to be beyond our ability to reign them in.
We poets have known since forever,
that these are forces beyond our control.
The only true controlled burn is anger.
Forgiveness extinguishes those flames.
We wait now for heaven’s forgiving
soaking rain to quench these flames
to stop this fire’s spread.
Joan Leotta is an author and Story Performer.
