Northern California

light like thin cloth / laundry-lines

           itself from Santa Cruz / to Redding

                      as wildfires skin

our mountains blue // in the kitchen,

           facing-heaven peppers swallow my

                      tongue / as I eat

yesterday’s takeout for dinner //

           piles of red / Szechuan sheaths

                      searching for a body

to wrap around // the sky bleeds

           into the lake bleeds into the hills //

                      ash the great / equalizer //

smoke: a silence / too thick

           to speak through // flames thread

                      blackened / slopes

like veins // bladed dark prises open

           the charred / music box heart

                      of the moon //  tonight

midnight hours / window themselves

           into vagueness on either side

                      of the clock’s every tick /

its every empty construction //

           then the minutes / burn away

                      completely // my hands

like grasslands / hungry for heat //

           time fevers / my fingertips // the night

                      goes up like fabric