I wrote this poem after the Lightening Complex Fire in Sonoma County threatened the land where our family had sheltered-in-place during the pandemic. We turned the irrigation off to the garden in order to preserve the water in the storage tank to fight the fire. When we returned weeks later, all the fruit was covered in ash and sweet from lack of water while the plants were nearly dead but full of flowers.

Maya Kini is a visual artist and poet who lives in San Francisco. She has a BA in Literature from Reed College and an MFA in Metalsmithing from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her poems have appeared in Bellevue Literary Review, Wildfire and Current Obsession.  Her favorite material is gold.