From “Mosaic:  Fire in the Kalmiopsis Wilderness”

After a fire:  do nothing.

Fire is a gift
as water is. 

Walk barefoot on burnt earth.
Breathe in.  Taste soot.  
Breathe out.  Taste ash. 

Trace charred bark’s iridescent sheen.
Kneel in soil scorched fine as talc.
Listen to the wind.

Uplift.  Fold.  Fault.  Fracture.
Deep canyons, jagged ridges,
and serpentine soils.

The Kalmiopsis Wilderness burns again
and again, resilient
as the flower it was named for:
Kalmiopsis leachiana,
oldest known member of the Heath family,
pre-ice age relic,
endemic to the Siskiyou Mountains.

Burnt or unburnt,
a forest is home.