POETRY -
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The devastation lingers in my eyes
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Slater Butte Fire, 2020
by Barbara Applegate
The devastation of my hometown lingers in my eyes
But my heart is closed, numb My mother’s house is still there Not the same as when she lived there But not destroyed by the Slater Butte Fire of 2020 The church where we accompanied Mom on our visits home Gone Our mother’s upright grand piano Donated to the church by her children Gone The home of my childhood best friend, Moochie, Gone The homes of so many Gone Carcasses of barbeques, cars, stoves, trucks, chimneys, photo frames Remain Bridges across Indian Creek appear whole, As if we could drive over to visit the rubble of a friend’s house But as we pass by We see the creek flowing below The roadbeds are gone, only the railings remain Mountainside after mountainside as far as the eye can see Covered with black sticks standing 10 or 20 or 30 feet high With smaller sticks reaching out of them Like long black spikes Nearly impenetrable forest as far as the eye can see Converted to stands of sticks As my sister and I drive higher, beyond the last few burned homes We begin to see sawdust thick along the side of the rising road Sawdust, like the blood of burned trees, flows from those being salvaged |
Barbara Applegate received a BA at UC Berkeley, with a major in Spanish, and an MS in Education at CSU, East Bay. As an administrator of Early Childhood Education, she developed a program to teach parents in non-English speaking families the value of helping their children retain the home language while learning English. She is the mother of 3 daughters, a traveler and a contemplative. She loves taking writing classes - not only because she learns from them, but because they give her structure for writing.
Other pieces in this Issue:
Nonfiction Leaving Home A Childhood Inside OLLI Book Review - Night Songs by Barbara Rose Brooker Photo Essays Presidio Gardens - San Francisco Vertical Divider
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