Eileen R. Tabios
The Glass Fire Hay(na)kus
The 2020 Glass Fire burned the drought-stricken area of over 67,484 acres and destroyed 1,555 structures, including 308 homes and 343 commercial buildings in Napa County, as well as 334 homes in Sonoma County. Also decimated was the poet’s home near where the mega wildfire originated.
Bellicose Silence
Winds for bellowing
rain and
fire
into typhoons
and megafires
reveal
invisibility can be
the most
dangerous
Empty Vases
As summer colonizes
winter, we
wonder
how to survive
without flowers
from
a Spring enabled
by winter
rains—
it’s been years
since our
drought
began with your
lack of
roses
The Fire Evacuee’s Song
Winter reveals the
clarity of
Mountains—
ironic when color
is light’s
illusion
But what is
real is
Winter
coming fast with
its chilly
revelations—
Once, laughter floated
easily from
Mountains
But now, we
fear any
Mountain
for bearing a
wildfire’s load
instead
of the families
it raised
with
us: deer, jackrabbits,
coyotes, bobcats,
trees…
Aurum
November’s
fallen leaves
jail sunlight on
ground—
gold carpet
trampled by humans
A Parenthetical R.I.P. for Brachychiton Acerifolius
A cross marks
where once
you
thrived with leaves
evoking bright
flames
But gravestones fail
at representing
wildfires
like how poems
cannot (re)present
you
Global Warming Denial
Beauty pageant participants
understand: “Beauty
costs.”
We don’t wish
to see
depression,
eating disorders, or
low self-esteem
in
what beauty contests
cause and
cost.
We won’t acknowledge
seasons becoming
unseasonal.
We would rather
consider all
lovely
flowers as appropriate
as if
they
were raising middle
fingers in
Dutch
paintings of death
through hot
house
blossoms whose thick petals bespeak a fragrance we are unable to experience unless we
choose to crush them, and we crush them, we crush them, we crush them…
"All Changes Change the World"
Reds and yellows
color winter's
deferral
as autumn forgets
and becomes
Spring!
All changes change
the world—
vividly
I remember you—
color is
narrative.