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Breeder of Flames
by Dee Allen

Days and nights are dry as bones again
Temperatures are hot as perdition again
The tall grasses are tinder again
The fruit orchards are burning again
The forest groves are burning again
The residents are fleeing again
The daylight is growing hazy again
The smoke is growing unbearable again
Native land is cinder and ash again

Left Coast life
Interrupted because of her
Acting her rage, taking it out
On California

She whom the Tsalagi
Back east have called
Atsila Unitsi
Mother Fire
Breeder Of Flames
Younger sister
To venerable
Elohi Unitsi
Mother Earth
With a more volatile edge—

Face masque sits
On the shelf
At home from
Her last rampage.
Will it be needed for
These uncertain
Dawns and dusks?

Perhaps the Biblical
Plague of locusts
Of Charles Fort's
Rain of frogs
May follow—



Tsalagi is the original name by which the Cherokee Indians call themselves.
Pronounced "Chah-lah-gee".  

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