Tamarack Fire, 2021
O ashfall, o char-choke
o incineration-stink
O gust-blown, o tempest-spread
spotfire spotfire spotfire
O silverblue mountainsides
now flame-retardant pink
Tahoe to Topaz swept into the blaze
of your immolating eye
O live ground, now sooted
black stone black stone black stone
O ghosts of piñons
o geometry of junipers
each burnt trunk and its branches
map of a watershed
going extinct
tributaries desiccated, main channel
empty as sky
O Lady clothed with the sun
you return in fury
crowned with the fire of twelve stars
inferno-heeled
conflagration-gowned
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 26, Issue 4.
Jennifer Bullis grew up in Reno, earned a Ph.D. in English at UC Davis, and taught college writing and literature in Bellingham, Washington, for fourteen years. Her first collection of poems, Impossible Lessons, was published by MoonPath Press in 2013.
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