SEVEN JUNIPERS EXPLODE

Double-helixed trunks are left
with cauterized branches stripped
of bark, peddling thin shade
to the graveled wash.

This spring’s

snow melt will stir the cinders,
blackened flows so quick to slip
off the red bluff, down into
the river.

The glaring east

bank soon becomes clouded and
unfishable for two miles.
Gray Jerusalem crickets
swarm the scorched trees and are
often blown from their sooty
perches down to the water
by the wind gusting upstream.