a pentecost of wildfires

Pulled into Waylon Jennings' hometown
thinking how the place could beat you down
to dust carried away on the same dry
wind that moves in preachers who testify

that God lives
in little boxes numbered
and scattered across flat, red earth.

The good news is that there are fields full
of ashes waiting for penitential
rites before wind rises again
to spread a pentecost of wildfires in

unknown tongues from places
beyond curving horizons
that make it hard to deny the earth is round.
© Steven Schroeder

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