Poem: Wildfire

By Pat Kowal

Like whips snapping

Flames lap brush, trees, homes, creating an inferno

Windswept embers blow from rooftop to rooftop

From tree crown to tree crown

Popping, crackling

Houses collapse, one after another

Neighborhoods gone in an instant

Tens of thousands escape with only shirts on their backs

One-fourth of a city of 250,000

Fleeing under evacuation orders

A hospital emptied

Nursing homes cleared

Electricity shut down

Armies called to action

Firefighters by the hundreds on ground and overhead

To save property, lives

Losses horrific, like an Armageddon

Nothing to salvage

Ash to ash

Tears and lament

Why didn’t the Amazon package in the melted metal mailbox burn?

Why did one house stay untouched while those on each side burst into flames?

Why did the Virgin Mary statue stay standing in the scarred garden?

A picture of hell for many

A hope fulfilled for others to find their homes still standing

No one knew what was coming that Saturday afternoon

Like the family who had bacon and eggs for breakfast in their kitchen

Only to be homeless by late afternoon

Or the VA Hospital staff who cared for the stroke patient

Only to transport him to the Convention Center for refuge

Or the whole city who woke up to a sunny summer’s weekend

Only to attempt sleep at night in grief and unknowing

A single spark

Becomes a mighty fire

Burning indelible scars on its victims

Let us pray for hope

Let us pray for recovery

Let us pray in gratitude for community that comes together

to support, care, and minister to a wound so great

where the devastation still cannot remove the felt-sense of compassion

Patricia Kowal, of Newport, lived on Spokane’s North Side for 40 years. A now-retired nurse, Kowal submitted this poem amid the devastation created by the Spokane Complex fires, which affected many areas she loved and of which housed her family and friends.