Hemlocked Heart

Melody of a furnace does smoke, crackle, spit
Sits an iron box on a stage made of rocks
Spues fire and steam while pots’ boil atop

Cherry, oak, almond do light up the night,
Burn bright, molten, sparking, singing hearth of delight
Flames dance, wind tunnels tuned to the chimney,

Sending billows of smoke out through the sky,
A single of home, endearing beacon seen wide
Practices and perfected a flicker of days gone by.

When the harvest moon shown, fire flaring wild in form
Came twirling down mountains, sang up valley gores,
Underbrush and ancients suffocated by deadly warm

It hunted through forest that I call near and dear
Threatening raven, lizard, coyote, and bear
The fire surrounds me, raving secure, shelter, fear.