Imagine Noah’s dove
with one green leaf
to prove the world survived.
Imagine it again,
this time the leaf on fire.
Now think of whistling kites
and brown Australian falcons,
branches burning in their beaks,
preparing to ignite a forest
to smoke out their prey.
The aborigines who speak of firehawks
are often disbelieved,
but you and I know otherwise.
These birds who burn
the hot dry ardent earth—
we see them fly,
we see the flicker in their eyes,
we see the flames,
we see the spreading of the fire.
