Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Mudslide Knockout Punch in So Cal

Feast or famine in the Golden State
Months of no rain left it a dry powder keg
Days of scorching heat--major fires to create
Miles of hillsides in flames, firefighters on last legs
Over miles of vegetation and  8,000 structures burnt to the ground
42 dead headed to the morgue--dozens of race horses burnt to death
Survivors shaken by the howling winds of flame, rain of flaming embers hurtling down
Heat, smoke and ash tearing one’s eyes, taking away one’s breath
Dante’s Inferno and total disaster for days on end
Billion dollars of damage along with dreams and memories destroyed
For Brown the sign of the new climate change destructive trend?
Mother Nature unchecked no matter how many firefighters and planes were deployed
Now still recovering from the near knockout punch by fire
We were hit by punch two of the one two combo blow
With firefighters exhausted needing to rest and from battle lines retire
Rain falling in inches by the hour on bare hills with no place to go
But down the hill side in a muddy unrushing wave
A moving wall of mud and debris with gravity picking up speed
Destroying homes  that somehow from the fires the firefighters saved
Killing at least 15 who the warnings to evacuate did not heed
If your home is in a mudslide’s path
Matters not how much fortune or fame
Or in Oprah’s case how well she practiced her craft
Total destruction by mud, a sad cruel end to homes that survived the earlier flames.
© January 10, 2018 Michael P. Ridley aka the Alaskanpoet
Alaskanpoet for Hire, Poems to Admire           

Poet Extraordinaire Beyond Compare    
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