I booked the flight at least a month before
November fires blanketed the state.
In miles from my bed, 534
is measured if a crow is flying straight,
but climate differs more than by degrees;
here’s autumn color, air that doesn’t choke
or irritate, most afternoons a breeze,
blue sky, white clouds, and not a thread of smoke.

Prepared in California for the quake,
predicted as a devastating blow,
we all have stored necessities to take
us through it when it comes, except we know
that’s not enough. Of late we’ve had to learn
the land will last, but all we love will burn.