Bethlehem is burning
it must be a metaphor
for this city
this life
this politics
sending ash into eyes

almost like  smoke
other older factories striped into sky
at scheduled intervals

but this black startles
seen from my ridge
20 miles away
a line of charcoal
interrupting a watercolor sunset

later
we roll up windows
and drive through it
the stink and haze filling streets

memory is toxic
especially breathed deep.