Hellscape
For weeks, fires.
Dim sun dissolving
into the dark haze that burns my throat,
stirs dust into my lungs. Lurching for breath.
At the crossroads,
factory lights bare their bright teeth
through the shroud of black smoke,
winking in time to the eerie growl
of crunching metal;
evil never sleeps.
crane claws raking, breaking, grabbing,
snatching trash and lifting, sifting and resettling:
landfill.
Dogs unleashed frolicking on the train tracks—
hear the whine as it echoes down the rails—
car motor thuds, headlights rise from barren ground—
course, collision, collide.
My eyes scream: fire.
Garden of Eden
And finally, it breaks rain
rolling down the house-side
painting my hair wet, the world:
green.
Gentle.
A light tap is all we need
to wake up and breathe.
Tell your children that
late October rain smelled of spring,
that fall meant damp and dew,
that we saw hummingbirds in
November.
Water flows, flowers.
Steps splashing, necks dripping,
dipping down to sip:
raindrops.
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As somebody who grew up in California and then lived in Washington for about ten years, I love this poem. Because when the smoke rolls in like that and makes it impossible to breathe or see the sun and chokes up everything, it truly does make you think of hell on earth. And then, when the rains come, it's so... magical. Like, I hate the constant rain the Seattle area. HATE IT. That's one of the reasons why I didn't mind moving away from there, haha. But like... after fire season, that first rain is magical! And then all the soot gets washed away and the grass becomes green... it's lovely.
Anyway, I am assuming that you live in the West Coast and have to deal with these fire seasons? Those wildfires are awful... my sister very nearly lost her house from one of them. Had to evacuate and everything. It's terrifying! Anyway, I hope things are better now. <3
The “Hellscape”, as described in the poem, is the industrialized world, the future. The “Garden of Eden”, is nature, coming down with its soft, gentle rain. This poem, I believe, talks about the world if we don’t stop with our factories. That’s what I think it is, anyway. I loved the visuals that were in the poem, like the inferno fires and cool raindrops. They really brought this poem to life.
I wish you a wonderful day/night.