Inspired by “School’s Out 1975” by Paula Neves
We form the steeple with our fingers and blow
Into our palms, hoping for the whistle sound
Of a new spirited hopefulness. Wishing us forward
To a time when the earth would not be charred
Rough grey and gauged out like a new valley floor.
We want to stop hearing about mandatory evacuations,
the Topanga Boulevard closed to traffic
For nearly a week, thousands of us displaced
To the streets, a friend’s couch or school gymnasium.
One family got off board at Pierce College
and slept in their truck with their chickens.
Fire season comes every week
Of the year now, its drought-filled head rises in the
Rain, it growls and flies when there is not even any
Wind. Helped on by arsons and the sparks from SCE’s
Downed power lines, from years of neglect.
It is what it is, everyone says, looking
Past the back fence to another year of the dry
Creek, and its forgiving smile with embedded boulders
And cracked railroad ties. We pack bags and load
Up cars one more time, dreaming of generators
And the bean soup thawing in the freezer without
Us, the worry and the waste of how it is.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 23, Issue 6.
Millicent Borges Accardi, a Portuguese-American writer, is the author of four poetry collections, including Only More So (Salmon Poetry, Ireland) and the upcoming Through a Grainy Landscape. Among her awards are fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Fulbright, CantoMundo, California Arts Council, Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Covid grant), Fundação Luso-Americana (Portugal), and Barbara Deming Foundation, “Money for Women.”
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