Creek Running North 大自然 Quemado

December 4, 2007

Quemado

I dreamed last night that I was in my old truck, out in the saguaros south of Burro Creek. The dog was with me, talking to me from the passenger seat of his hatred for deserts. “Turn left,” he said. “There are forests higher on the Rim.” I did not turn except to follow the turning of the road.

The road clung to the precipice for a mile and then descended. We pulled over to the edge. A mile below us the desert was burning. Smoke rose to us; the cloying scent of Joshua trees ablaze, charred earth and flesh attenuated on the rising air. For a hundred miles to the south there was nothing but fire, and towering plumes, and a sky burnt hell-orange. Phoenix was out there burning, and Tucson, and I watched Baboquivari melt on the horizon.

I turned to Zeke, alarmed for him, but he was already ablaze. Bright torrid flames sprouted from him like fur. His eyes undimmed he watched me, calm but curious, concerned, and then he fell to ash before me. “There are forests higher on the Rim,” he said again, and then the wind dispersed him.

Posted by: Chris Clarke

Categories:
Recommended
Desert
Pets

Send to Del.icio.us; Digg; Ma.gnolia; Reddit; Spurl; Newsvine; StumbleUpon

Comments are closed

I'm sorry, but the comment period for this entry has ended.

Crying.

1
By: Theriomorph
on December 4, 2007
at 12:48 PM

write the book you have in you. then go to the forests higher up. xoxo

2
By: kathy a
on December 4, 2007
at 01:27 PM

In some way this reminds me of our current “situation” up here in the Northwest. Early last summer a group of renegade Makah set out and killed a grey whale in violation of not only treaties, agreements, and laws, but also the tribal sanctions regarding this ‘sacred’ activity. In mid-July one of the Makah elders spoke of his vision/dream that revealed how this profane activity will cause the tribe to be visited by a calamitous disaster from the Ocean. Sunday and yesterday were that comeuppance.

Not only were there winds with gusts in excess of 100mph, but late last night there came the giant waves crashing into the bay and throughout the reservation. The outside buoys recorded swells between 11 PM and 1 AM ranging in size from 37 to 51 feet. They continue today in the 25 to 35 foot range. The dreamers need to be paid attention to more often. Keep dreaming and keep writing.

3
By: spyder
on December 4, 2007
at 03:51 PM

As Ed Abbey would have had it, “Good News”.

4
By: Fred Levitan
on December 4, 2007
at 05:58 PM

Amazing. Poetry. Thank you.

5
By: Xris (Flatbush Gardener)
on December 4, 2007
at 09:31 PM

spyder and chris are scaring me.... but I could be having the same dreams, but awake.

Depression that I cannot seem to shake. Our world is dying, and now the K9 has fleas again.

She’ll sleep in my bed with me, nevermind.

6
By: sravana
on December 4, 2007
at 11:05 PM

I come in from a difficult day and check in here before collapsing in bed and feel that wind blow thru me watching Dog turn to ash - I am so relieved to get communicated to like this. I am so grateful.

7
By: in medias res
on December 5, 2007
at 12:26 AM

Maybe you should visit those forests?

8
By: Rana
on December 5, 2007
at 11:47 AM

I’ve had this post in my head while reading Gray’s Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals; an interesting overlay indeed.

What a sucker-punch of an image: the dog who speaks such that that we understand. Whence its power?

Is it the painful years of sub-creole communication: the frustrated fumbles, pleading eyes, double-backs and flicker tail? “If only my English were better; if only you spoke dog.”

Or is it exactly what you suggest: we know, at heart, that we are missing essential information, important warnings.

Reports of new animals widening the interstices of even dense human habitation feel like an awareness that fire is coming. Chemicals on the breeze, flashes of color, calls and postures all are screaming at frequencies that we choose to hear as static.

Poor dogs, and their flawed choice of companion species.

9
By: jmartin
on December 6, 2007
at 12:10 PM