Shouldn't…but Do

A fire burned through these parts.  It had smoldered for years, contained.  The ground grew resistant to the heat, things died, were forgotten.  A lot forgotten. Critters fled.  A strange, strained, heated landscape.

Finally jumped its firebreak a few years back, consumed all in its path.  Hot, unendurable, more things died, what was left – ran.

Fire died back, died out mostly.  It was part natural, part man-made.  They jailed the fella who caused it, life sentence for the destruction he caused.  When a tree falls in the forest – someone cared.

Life is coming back, the rocks have cooled.  Critters starting to trust the place again.  Other men work to heal the landscape, plant seeds that grow only after trial by fire.  Funny how that works.

Part demon, part nature, fire.  This landscape will see beauty again this generation, better in the next.  Beauty takes time.   Sometimes beauty takes fire.