Paradise, Evacuation Lifted

by Wren Tuatha

To date, less than 8% of residents have reoccupied
the Camp Fire burn zone in California.

Five months and my scream
can’t find my throat.
I see it out there, hovering
over dump truck convoys
and herds of naked chimneys,
all wrong with soot on their outsides.
My scream tails me to the Paradise
Walgreens, open limited hours,
to Paradise Starbucks where I select
an historic novel,
fistful of normalcy, from the giveaways.
My scream shakes you by the shoulders
on a sidewalk in Chico, while you ask
if my goats made it off the mountain,
then inform me I’m fine because my cabin
still stands.  Stands still and leaky,
its logs, loose fingers
cupping a smokey scream.