Here in Eastern Washington the wind changed and all the fire smoke from Calif. Wash and Ore decided to hang out here so we went from AQI 35 one day to AQI 495 the next. In three days of hazardous stay-inside air it is now down to 305. Still the low end of the purple zone. Temp was supposed to be in the upper 80s but now is only in the 60s. Still didn't stop my neighbor from sitting on his patio at night smoking and coughing! I was thinking about all that the smoke contained, burned homes, belongings loved ones and it made me feel the sadness that it contained and I wrote this poem:Sad Air
South winds cover skies with smoke, blown
north as the west coast burns, particulates
of food, shelter, clothing, memories, loved
ones, leave dust on our cars, lawns, hands.
Palpable sadness coats this world . .sky is
the color of an abandoned YouTube channel.
Dystopia no longer imagined but manifest:
consequences of the American Dream
turned nightmare. We fall to our knees & beg
forgiveness as oligarchs use our bodies—steps
to mount a Jacob’s Ladder rising to the god
of greed, still out of reach. They ignore our pain.
I run my fingers along the roof of my Prius, rough
brown dust stays, visible, tactile, full of sadness.
We are refugees, Dreamers, looking for our
inheritance, finding only sadness, as our children
somehow embodying hope, pick through the rubble,
searching for their future.
9/12/2020
