I wrote this during the Tubbs fire.  Napa is one of our favorite places, the sadness and loss of life staggering.  We had to wear masks, even at 40 miles Southwest of the fire.

Embers fly
to and fro.
Heat, sparks,
people deciding
what to take
from their houses.
Close to those embers,
engines, firemen, planes
above dumping bright
orange chemicals to
subdue the flames.
Winding roads, small
passages, grapevines,
and tasting rooms
farm equipment and
bottles, bursting from the
unbearable heat.
Historic wineries,
with aged vines,
craggy and full
of bursts of red, yellow,
and orange foliage.
Sky, black and gray,
with touches of sparks
and fires and
sometimes great walls
of fire.
Coming from
all directions,
destroying as they
move randomly.
Exhausted firemen,
heartbroken home
owners seeing their
dream homes turn
to ash and all the
memories inside them.
and most sadly people
lost.  I see their faces,
their stories.
Now quiet,
hush, ash and brick
fireplaces and
pottery stand alone
in the ash.
It is quiet now, most of
it over.  in control.
Maybe the point
is we are never
totally in control.
Mother nature rules
sometimes with a fury.
A green spout
emerges from
the ashes.
It will be rebuilt,
hope will emerge
from all the destruction.
We are renewed,
we move on.
There will be
laughter flowing
from those homes,
The ashes and sadness
a long ago memory.
I will toast to the people
lost in all this, Napa will
begin again, but the lessons
learned will be there always.

Jewel Roberts 10-17-2017