NVN Friday: ON EDGE
by Beth Paulson
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It always was where urban met the wild hilly interface of forest land and city where on a clear day you could see the sea, where roads rose up or meandered into the steeper, southern side of the San Gabriels. Today smoky air hangs heavy, sun’s blotted out where avenues lined with old deodar cedars grown tall, a firebreak for lucky residents where we walk uphill from our saved home amid downed branches, dangling power lines. The fireman on one corner let us pass if we promised to head back to our car down the next road. We don’t talk much, know sirens in the distance signal fires still spark and smolder east of Lake Avenue. Our block of Santa Anita escaped the fire where this morning knots of neighbors gather who surely know the line is thin and tenuous between being a victim or survivor. We bend to scoop up embers from the grass yet around the corner a home burned to the ground. A plume of burning gas marks the backyard, ash pile with charred beams, blackened bricks, twisted metal, a chimney all that’s standing, a concrete driveway leading in and out.
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Beth Paulson moved recently to Altadena, California from Ouray County, Colorado where she founded the Poetica Workshop, directed Poetry at the Tavern, and served as Poet Laureate. Her poems have been published nationally in over 200 journals and have four times been nominated for Pushcart Prizes. Luminous (Kelsay Books, 2021) is her sixth collection.