Last night it rained
today a battered
garden

the plants bedraggled
but the air
washed free of smoke

too bad the rain
didn't come
two weeks sooner

before the fires
destroyed so many
homes

I think about
my friend who lost
so much

his instruments
paintings he'd made
and more

his sweet wife
lost to cancer
just last winter

her ashes
lost as well now
in the fire

My heart goes out
to him
and to the others
But even late
I'm grateful
for the rain

I pray it brings
along with
cleaner air

Some solace
to our
recent refugees

And helps the men
still fighting fires
up north

So many fires
at times it feels
as if

the whole west coast
were one vast
conflagration

althought it's
an exaggerated
picture

hard to imagine
things improving
soon