When lightning delivers its wicked blow
and the wisps of acidic burn informs the birds
the deer, the squirrels, of danger they know.

They flee as best they can, they run and fly
for they know reality doesn’t bend for them
and the destruction of fire is not for them to deny.

And yet we, in an age of thunder and lightning
don’t turn from the stench of the devil’s burn,
we’d rather marvel in the rareness of the sighting.

We adopt corruption, ugliness, pain and death
into our view of the world, and grow accustomed
to the devil’s darkly demonized view of Earth.

Better than the wooded animals and birds, it is we
who think we can look away when life’s reality doesn’t
fit the model of who we believe we all should be.

Millions remain delusional, accepting denied reality and never
seeing that the darkness, the acidic burn is not outside
but rather inside of us, for the devil is wicked and clever.

And we are too weak to accept that the forest is really burning!