TRAVELLING FIRE/LAND WITH A FOX, by Lara Gularte

TRAVELLING FIRE/LAND WITH A FOX

Smoke rises, as shadows feed fire.

When Kali, Goddess of destruction appears, the sun goes dark.

Trees like fiery pillars reach up to the heavens,

and the sky sways with wingspan.

Shadows running, the eagle’s voice a twitter.

A gray fox turns himself into smoke to escape burning.

Forgotten memories rise up around me in flames.

Like Eurydice, I wonder how I will live in hell—

My head full of prayers,

I see God in the smoke of a dark cloud.

When the fire moves on,

haze and soot fall in a mist.

Granite cliffs rich in feldspar and quartz,

bleached bare like a photo negative.

The fox re-enters himself when I breathe in,

curls safe inside my ribcage.

To heal from this desolate place, we wander together,

till we find Evergreen hope in a gathering of unburnt Jeffrey Pines.

I breathe out the fox, and all that I carry,

breath turning to light.

-Lara Gularte