vermilion

over 10000 acres burned outside of santa cruz.

the crawl of particulates

during my daylight slumber.

chemicals coalesce into a majestic frown.

 

i wake

under red tinted windows.

bedroom walls blushing

in a boquet of silence.

 

the sky

outside is colored

heavily with apocolpyse hued

crayons.

 

outside the lines are

childish and chaotic.

the picture of unrestraint.

 

the light is heavy and draws

down the day to a twilight

ruled by a murderous moon.

blood and ash smear it's face

as it looks down upon our wonder.

 

i feel a primeval apology

form like a prayer in my gut

as i am made small

by vermillion.

 

 

Author's Note

the picture for this poem was taken by my fiance "cutedeath" and yes this is actually the sky from our apartment complex.

Reviews

[Sorry Infamous]

The ending was perfect and graceful. A great ending to this hauntingly beautiful scene.

[Ninelilies]

I think it's beautiful.

[Gandré]

Hello there, dear, I missed you do! Thank you for your wonderful words while reviewing my poem INK AND INKLING.

I truly adored the creativeness of your new piece. I missed them! This is not only meaningful, but makes my heart leap, the first stanzas are so poetic! and this ending...
i feel a primeval apology

form like a prayer in my gut

as i am made small

by vermillion.-----the ultimate fantasy, superior read, you have your creative love potential, oh yes.

[Emily B]

The power of your words displays the awesome over-powering force of Nature.

[Tara]

Thanks for letting me know about this one. I have missed reading you. I don't know why this should sound beautiful, there is certainly a sadness and darkness to the event. I loved this piece. What I loved about it is the creative way you use imagery and I love the ending especially the last two stanzas. It speaks to me of how connected we are to the elemental...we mourn the loss of life and feel a sense of responsibility. My only tiny stumble was "The picture of unrestraint"...I thought perhaps, "unrestrained_____________(add a word). Or "A masterpiece (or a Picasso) of an unrestrained God" I dunno...just thoughts.

[Jordan]

Sure, it is negative and dark, but the beauties in life aren't always cheery! This is a delightful story you've spun in just 24 lines, and it shows great use of imagery. How you used your words, it's as if you can just see the scene and feel it, and I think this is just a wonderful work you've done. Keep up the good work!

[Touché Armada]

I�m a pretty twisted individual, so I don�t find this dark or negative, its simply a part of life, one that needs to be respected, but then again I live in Australia, wild fire is a part of life here, something we are learning to live with better and better all the time. And besides, without fire in this country, much of it would in fact die.
Is California burning AGAIN? Geesh, a track record as good as NSW and Victorias high country, I have never seen anything so unforgiving as the fires we had here, and I have never seen so many people take a stand against the elements. Pretty inspiring I think, there used to be a time people were forcefully evacuated, but not anymore, and now we suffer less loss as a result. I spent days and days on the back of a big red truck during the last high country fires, I never really understand why the residences praise us like they do, we are so well equipped and supported and they rely on themselves most often and are not always well equipped, I think they are the ones that deserve praise, wildfire is a scary thing. You should check out the size of the ones we had here, we were chocking for months on the smoke. Take care.

[Mistral Bilgera]

it is beautifully dark. :)
I've seen on TV some terrible fires in California (?), and your vivid imagery is like taking me there.
Vermilion. Nice to use that shade of red to end the poem, depicts the chaos right...

[Legion]

Well, it is negative and dark, but that has a beauty in itself. I liked it. You used your imagery well and wording was spot on. I didn't read the part about it being about the burnt acreage until after I read the poem. Thought it was about the end of the world so to speak. Could fit either/or. Great work here.