All day out in the pasture
starting with paper trash
and cardboard boxes
a splash of gasoline
to get it going
and then the brush and brambles
soaked by the recent rains
but still able to catch
and bigger limbs
that fell from the big oaks
during the windstorm
that swept through a week ago
trunks of small trees
that last year floated
in the pond
making a sunny porch
for native turtles
and then were left behind
when the pond dried
now it's full again
thanks to the feeder stream
gurgling over stones
in a mad rush
to merge with the still waters
and quick to take advantage
of that quiet refuge
today the ducks were back

One might think it boring
tending a fire
all the long afternoon
and into evening
which comes early now
in late November
but no
there's something so compelling
about watching how the flames
play in the breeze
as if alive
how the smoke
rises and shifts direction
with the wind
how the wet wood hisses
how the embers
glow and snap
and settle into coals

Is it because for half a million years
we've tended fires like this one
seeking the warmth
the heat for cooking
and at night
the light to keep at bay
the predatory demons
whether real
or creatures of our fantasy
and to create a hearth
where we could sit
and share the stories of the day
the hunt
the sight of bison herds
of mammoths
and other tales
of how the world was formed
how the first men and women
came to be
so much the fire taught us
in those early days
and still it has the power
to feed my mind
to hold my gaze steady
on the glowing coals
I am its child
and will be till the time
I give my body back
to the cleansing flames