Evacuation Chorus
(Air quality 252: very unhealthy)
And what would I take and did I pack a box and where will I
meet my family and is my family already over the river in the
other life and is this kingdom come and have I made a hell
and do I have enough water for two weeks?
Or move to Alaska or move to the beach or wait tables in
Chicago or dive into a silver lake or open my mouth in a
bathtub or open my hand in the rain or find a wet field and sit
down or stop the vision the wall of flame the horses in panic.
But water the roof but you only get one warning but they
pound on your door at night but they say get out now but keep
the cat in the house the carrier by the door but embers blow
half a mile but where will you sleep but keep the garage door
open but it won’t open.
If an axe if a chainsaw if you bloody dropped the cigarette if
the lightning with its seventeen hundred arms if a moron with
a mower if a red flag Smokey day if the fuel load if the old
oppression of suppression if the crown fire the back burn the
run if just some rain if only some rain if only rain.
And what would I take and did I pack a box and where will I
meet my family and is my family already over the river in the
other life and is this kingdom come and have I made a hell
and do I have enough water for two weeks?
Or move to Alaska or move to the beach or wait tables in
Chicago or dive into a silver lake or open my mouth in a
bathtub or open my hand in the rain or find a wet field and sit
down or stop the vision the wall of flame the horses in panic.
But water the roof but you only get one warning but they
pound on your door at night but they say get out now but keep
the cat in the house the carrier by the door but embers blow
half a mile but where will you sleep but keep the garage door
open but it won’t open.
If an axe if a chainsaw if you bloody dropped the cigarette if
the lightning with its seventeen hundred arms if a moron with
a mower if a red flag Smokey day if the fuel load if the old
oppression of suppression if the crown fire the back burn the
run if just some rain if only some rain if only rain.
Amy Miller’s writing has appeared in Gulf Coast, Permafrost, Willow Springs, and ZYZZYVA. Her full-length poetry collection, The Trouble with New England Girls, won the Louis Award from Concrete Wolf Press. She lives in Ashland, Oregon, where she works as a print project manager and blogs at writers-island.blogspot.com.
“Finding Ash Inside the Car” and “Evacuation Chorus” were written in summer
2018, when my region, southern Oregon, was surrounded by wildfires and choked with dangerously smoky air for six weeks. It was our second year of it, and the economic damage and health consequences are still being calculated.
“Finding Ash Inside the Car” and “Evacuation Chorus” were written in summer
2018, when my region, southern Oregon, was surrounded by wildfires and choked with dangerously smoky air for six weeks. It was our second year of it, and the economic damage and health consequences are still being calculated.