There is a full moon tonight,
rising in the opposite of the sun’s setting:
true west in the quick passing
of the vernal equinox.

It would be pleasant
to sit in the soft shadows
of a fire in the chiminea
on the small weathered deck.

But the wind we hoped
would lay in the evening
is still swaying limbs and branches
and we do not like such chances

with hot coals and glowing embers.

There are things that are good
in quiet times and stillness
that turn dark and sometimes deadly
when other forces rise.

The skies turned black today
in the Flint Hills of Kansas,
perhaps the careless toss
of an almost used up cigarette

or some even more thoughtless
notion of burning trash
on a day when nothing outside
could be set fire and then contained.

We who live on the plains
must be carefully of loosing flame
in the face of dry winds
and swaying grass

else things meant to last will not.

H. Arnett
3/23/16