•

Whole towns like • horses turnt loose in the bardo of •

« wild » fire’s roiling, locust-clouded « our » stampede—as if

ignoring a war two counties over meant it couldn’t come

closer—plague-black | ened forests consumed by a burnt

• wind: « and untamable » a lithe and lumbering creature cities-

sized, mitosis-prone, come to lick clean the tinder « tender

ly » face of village mid-stampede. Caressing • lost wedding

pictures, kitchen tables, • dogs lured in « runaway » terror in

to the inferno, it leaps roads in its roving. Whole towns re

made over • and far • in « night » parking lots where « away »

wander once-middle-class refugees the fire’s made. Atop

an RV, a parrot’s perched, and for its human from whom

it’s learned, its gift: Fuck you. Its every world of instinct • breach

ed, and black « trust- » its human-made ruin. Hello?