Sangre de Cristo: Summer of Fire
Sangre de Cristo,
Blood red against the sky,
Smoky crimson sunrise
Illuminates the dry
And murky landscape,
Grey haze that turns to pink,
And throws a rosy glow
To make night’s shadows sink.
Mountains rise ephemeral,
Magic light against their rock,
A brief illumination
Shows their beauty with a shock.
Of this pink and hazy glow
Wrought by fires in the south,
Fire in the sky,
And fires bred by drought.
Flames that rise and roar
And eat all before their path,
Nature and man’s doings
Give way before their wrath.
We watch from distant fastness
As smoky fingers curl,
Long tendrils reach with greed
To menace with their swirl.
And spread a grim grey threat
To make us tear and choke,
We wear a gauzy veil
Of ash and haze and smoke.
It filters through our valleys
Where grass stands stiff and dry,
Where leaves hang low and thirsty
Beneath this pall of sky.
Tales now come to haunt us
Of flames that leave a stark
And ancient calling card,
Borne aloft by wind and spark.
We watch and wait and fret
That such could be our fate,
While distant matches flare,
In a tinderbox, we wait.
Such thoughts all disappear
With wonder and with awe,
As sunrise works its alchemy,
Paints the country with a raw
And glowing pinkwash,
With a brief and fleeting dye.
Sangre de Cristo,
Blood red against the sky.
Sharon Salisbury O’Toole
