by Joan Leotta
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One might think that in an area Used to the force of hurricanes, Uncontrolled forces of wind and water That wreak havoc on the land Might better understand The paradox of their mission. Setting a “controlled burn” That’s how it started, they say. To burn four hundred wooded acres to lessen fire’s damage. “They” ignited the flames, watched, and left, not realizing until the next day embers had reignited, blazed hot and traveled on the wind in the night. Now, as I write, a week later, almost sixteen thousand acres of woodland are now ash. Countless animals, birds have lost homes, people not as yet, but the flames are still unextinguished, blaze still only partly contained. Red suns at dawn and dusk are beautiful but terrifying at the same time. Wind, fire, water, earth— four elements have already shown themselves to be beyond our ability to reign them in. We poets have known since forever, that these are forces beyond our control. The only true controlled burn is anger. Forgiveness extinguishes those flames. We wait now for heaven’s forgiving soaking rain to quench these flames to stop this fire’s spread.
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Joan Leotta is an author and Story Performer.
Love this poem Joan!