when the skies glow red.

don't breathe

there is no oxygen left

the fire has taken it all.

don't move

there is no place 

safe for humans.

you understand heat

but these hundred shades of hell

are so unnatural you wonder

which planet you've been moved to.

the dryness tightens your skin

and liquid filters through you,

you're a sieve.

your brain screams "panic"

but your heart cries "be careful"

how can anything survive this?

you think,

and then you try not to.

every horizon drops 

and the atmoshere is

completely visceral,

specks of darkness fall

and you know they were once

living things, taken by the flame.

the light/dark paradox

of your situation is

ultimately eased by time

but somewhere something

is changed - you can never

unknow a fire.

you can survive it, or not

but mother nature is a dominating bitch

etching your psyche with her lessons.

so when the skies glow red,

then black

you'd better have 

your buckets full

and your affairs in order.