Mendocino County #1
Some regions
like bodies
have pain.
You know
it in the way
the air smells,
the way
the trees burn,
the way
the water
tastes like ash.
The dry sun
ignites the
season like a wick
and everything
flames out
like leprosy.
Mendocino County #2
It's like falling
into God,
and God is
angry and busy
updating Dante's
Hell.
Mendocino County #3
When I woke
the sun was scarlet
maybe dimmed down
a notch or two,
a smokey red.
The air tastes
like coal and
breath is labor--
the west coast
is on fire, some
small Armageddon,
a tiny apocalypse.
Practice for when
we fall and when
it all burns down.
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