Ocean Spirit

iii. coal skies

the sunlit summers

of my childhood

running across meadows

amber poppies

brushing against my legs

chasing tangerine monarchs

across the golden grasses

and oak trees nestled

in dips between the hills

the mellow summer waves

crashing softly in the distance

raising a worn butterfly net

flitting with the soft breeze

swiping at these flying jewels

pirouetting like autumn leaves

until i felt dizzy and laid down

staring at the faded blue sky

twenty years later

the meadows are charred

burnt by the scorching heat

and endless wildfires

raging across the dry hills

until blackened lands

speckled with mud-cracked

ditches and riverbeds

are all that are left

the orange monarchs

the topaz gems of summer

are merely ghosts

drifting across dead plains

searching for wildflowers

that have burnt away

disappeared under the heat

never to blossom to life

and my children

look at the vast skies

soot stained with coal fumes

and wonder why

the skies were cerulean

in the old children's books

gazing at these gray skies

smothered by coal

my childhood memories

crumble like ashes

slipping through my fingers

like flitting coal dust

in soft morning light