Evergreen Fire

The last time I went to Evergreen Park

I went

Imagining to weld some leaves together
Just like I had learned in school

Yet  the fun
Of kicking up some ashes where

Once lay a bed of leaves
And bins of trashes

Was something
My kids could never get enough.

The last time I went to Evergreen Park
Porcupine needles stuck in my socks

I spoke to an unemployed firefighter who
Longed for those days when his fire-vest went smelting

The heat on his cheek -he joked-
Made him feel Scottish

Battling a Loch Ness flame machine spewing windy thermal columns
As he had to dig trenches whilst the combustion of gasses effaced canopies of vegetation

Those were the days he said.

I reminded him of my childhood fire hero
Smokey the bear

That sometimes I would ponder about whilst drinking and face-timing at my Starbucks in Pasadena
Looking out the window and wondering how far that smoke trail would go?

Like a comet the smokey tail moved on and on
And the coffee's heat stung the back of my throat

Most clients paid little attention to the surrounding skewering valleys
As the act of their swiping was certainly preponderant over shovelling

Certainly

In Evergreen Park I hacked a dry smokeless hack

Then picking up what I though first to be a surviving ashen stick

(It was a metal piece from some fire-fighting equipment)

I drew a fire engine from days gone by.

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