What We Gained in the Fire

This is not whatever’s left.

This is a new world itself.

It may be less lovable—

It’s certainly scarred by loss.

But the scars didn’t exist

Before the fire. Now they do.

Ask anyone the era

That was the best,

And they’re likely to select

Something humans remember,

Somewhat altered by culture,

But prior to disaster—

Prior to which disaster

Doesn’t really much matter,

Just antediluvian,

In any case. Then it went

On its way, the world, until

It ripened into something

As antediluvian

As was before. This valley

That inhabitants now mourn

Was already burnt to stumps

Near the end of the boom years

Of mining, a century

And a couple of decades

Ago—old photos look grim,

Grimmer than this new patchwork

Of thickly forested green

Cut by swathes of blackish brown.

That first fire burned it all down.

Local school kids will be forced

To learn about the damage

Done by both historic fires,

Assuming there are school kids

Attending future classes

In the valley created

By that history, their worlds

Contingent on disasters

That made their worlds possible.