The Caldor Fire broke out August 14 in the Middle Fork Cosumnes canyon not far from where Hatch and I lived for 24 years. The house he built was evacuated in the fire’s first days and remains evacuated. We’d often train our dogs in National Forest off Caldor Road.
Traveling the Caldor Fire
I meant to drive upcountry for the tingle
of blue-blue summit air, the forever vistas.
Instead, I’m watching early morning TV
for acres burned, evacuation orders,
ghosts of fire-lit clouds of smoke
hazing mountains and our foothills home,
too close. So far, we’re safe.
Freeway on- & off-ramps closed to let
the stream of refugees pour down –
horse trailers, RVs, SUVs packed bumper-
to-bumper. I’m going nowhere
except in memory, house we built by hand
on a ridgetop and lived in for decades
among mazes of winding pothole 2-lanes
and logging roads, and miles of forest
for hiking. On TV I watch those
miles of forest torching, red-white spiral
flame taking wing from the tops
of ponderosa pine, incense cedar.
So far, so close. I’m traveling those
well-known places
I won’t see the same again.
~ Taylor Graham
