Red Sky by Allyson Seconds |
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FIRE IN THE HILLS By Traci Gourdine July 21, 1996, Sunday, Valencia, CAFire in the hills. We watched the night glow with flames a bright orange rose between the breasts of hill. It was beautiful to watch and I wanted it to last forever. At this safe distance devastation has a fascinating appeal. One of us drove by car to the brink of fire. Valerie was out and tracked the smoke to its source. how it all can explode suddenly into embers. Afterwards, she and a friend found a batting range and they hit balls, aimed right at the burning belly of Saturday night. Artists are often drawn to flame the feel of sting of heat, the song of rupturing life. And now this morning I point out the hills where the fire stormed The ground looks unsinged from our long distance It is difficult to pin point where it had been Water and daylight have erased everything we look away disinterested. patch of earth, scalding sky the air so still. |
Heart Hangs On by Allyson Seconds |
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STILL By Traci Gourdine We slipped spare pennies and a few precious dimes into the thin crack of our elementary school We imagined a small pile would grow there and once we were gone far grown with small children of our own someone would find those coins and marvel at their wealth of good luck Somehow four girls in lazy socks and unraveling braids knew the only way to treasure is through wreckage We never guessed that all we had known all that we lived could be razed and flattened into six lane highways or shopping malls The once familiar scent of fallen leaves wet beneath our rubber boots the scent of our innocence cinnamon oranges, bologna and cheese empty lunch boxes wax of crayons, new shoes with the boy and dog in the heel would all retreat As adult I now hear sorrow in the cries of Canadian geese lonely dogs answer back the neighboring yards sing with fear not warning Still overhead the sky shows her belly to us As day bruises with light and the glory of falling stars continue rippling the black meteors, those dead stones of light whoop it up, a salute in passing Watch how the sky rolls over and shows herself in a million different ways Geese fly on as dogs bark clawing at the fences erected hard against them and little girls will continue to drop their dim treasures into the dark crevices of all that we mean to destroy |
Stand Alone by Ann Lamparski |
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GARDEN SONG By Traci Gourdine birth coming a readiness stills time tides of new waters break crimson yet clear a seizure of oozing life loud cries in harmony urgent whispers straddle the room walls bump floors grind and sweat from start to finish shadows drop in reverence so dear lay low hard winds stay sweet old grass a quaking has come spinning colors in this arrangement life here returns the new ancestor |
 Traci Gourdine Photograph by Jessica Eger |
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