"Burn Country" by Cristian Tamayo

The starling lies

on the road

motionless stiff

still

shimmering through

slow rising smoke,

lit by the

cardinal-colored glow

of the flickering

fire burning on

both sides of that

hazy unholy horizon.

The birds carried

all trace of sound.

Silence looms beneath

the suffocating sky.

I feel the recoil

and shudder.

The clouds suddenly

start to take on

strange shapes

as the wind shifts,

but the ash still

comes down like

a flock congregating

on the rooftops

of the all empty homes.