James Balog

Orange flame gave power and comfort since the invention of fire.
Burning wood.
Burning oil, coal, methane gas,
the dead ooze of ancient seafloors and forgotten rivers.
Now fire hides its dragon face in thrusting pistons, electric thunderbolts, blazing furnaces.
Fuels from the fossil dead give possibility and pleasure.
Yet the necropolis comes back to haunt us.
Corpses, burning.
Cerulean blanket overhead,
once the realm of heavenly hosts,
has become a garbage dump.