Over Albuquerque a haze mutes the light
and adds a little cough to the breath.
A prescribed burn in the San Moreno Mountains
the city’s air quality email states.
What doctor prescribes fire
as a cure or vaccine?
Imagine the pharmacist
filling a pill bottle with a book of matches.
Imagine the doctor telling the forest,
Take two lightning strikes and call me in the morning.
copyright © 2019 Kenneth P. Gurney
POSTSCRIPT
The prescribed burn in the San Moreno Mountains was a month ago. Since then Albuquerque has been blanketed by smoke that blew in from Arizona forest fires when the wind is right. The smoke is bad enough that health advisories are issued.
My sense of the situation is that the last few years of epic forest fires is a combination of climate change and poor (or ignorant) forestry management. I think the forestry service has learned quite a bit these last few years. I read that some of this learning was from studying old photos of forests and seeing how the trees were spaced farther apart due to natural burns.
Love & Light
Kenneth
