Wildfire

And I woke up to the end of the world
Apocalypse of movies and fantasy
Ash falling from the sky like leaves
The sun a blood orange
Smoke filling the air
Noxious and acrid
Blown in on Californian tides
As the west burns

Polluting the artificial as nature intended
Mountains vanished overnight
The horizon transported to the Midwest plains
Tall buildings, neon and video glamour, flattened to earth tones
Like a sepia photograph
Lost at the bottom of a drawer

But this is just an inconvenience
The fall out of forestry mismanagement and climate change
Not real the fallout of Threads or of The Day After
Horrors delivered by television
When the populace could be scared

Because it is the acceptance that is heartbreaking
That the earth hemorrhages smoke that blankets two states
And the interruption of daily runs and pool time are what seem to matter
Where is the outrage, the tears for trees
A public resource managed for private profit

Perhaps I will go back to bed.
It is the end of the world after all.