Kindling for the brush fire,
plastic packaging browns
in the embers and curls.
The smell of burnt hair,
the branches blanched,
a release of furans into
the atmosphere. Smoke
clings to our clothing
like dioxins to the lungs.
In this hottest summer
on record in a succession
of broken records, forest
fires rise around us as
we reach into corners
of multi-layered laminate
to satisfy a craving
that can’t be contained.
♦
Cassidy McFadzean was born in Regina, graduated from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and currently lives in Toronto. She is the author of two poetry collections: Hacker Packer (McClelland & Stewart 2015), which won two Saskatchewan Book Awards, and Drolleries (M&S 2019). She can be found at cassidymcfadzean.com
♦♦♦
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“whatever happened happened”
The Litter I See Project 