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Smoke Water
by Rhienna Renée Guedry


​Through plumes and evacuation 

zones: the wildfires gave us 
something else to look out for, large 
and unmistakable
so we shifted our worry from 
     danger to          danger        
like weight, a baker's measure of volume, 
as sure as eggs is eggs, a        fire     is     fire, 
so we prayed for rain, we studied the inversion 
as it reversed           a mountain’s tip 
to thread its dark weather towards a valley; a heft that 
          can be known, and defied

Vinegar and honey to 
soothe 
the throat 
as light haloed above us in umber and ochre, 
           painter’s colors crusted with neglect, we transformed 
 each dry surface with vessels of water, 
 steamed rosemary and mint to recharge the 
cigarette-fingered perception of           life          indoors, we 

Left out bowls of water for 
birds and squirrels, bowls 
of           water          like          hymns—some 
for them 
and some for us—and with 
          purpose for ten days, we forgot to worry 

About the other disaster, fixed 
instead on our hollow          of bad air, breath 
shallow with careful no-coughs, we kept      still and 
kept mouths covered,           certain and manageable, which
reminded us of fire drills: when to          lower 
     our bodies, when test doorknobs 

The thing is, we won't remember how 
it felt, wearing our masks inside, 
just like           I didn’t remember how 
a small boat made its way through my childhood home 
          during its second flood, 
hovering over brown water

     I wore a mask then, too: 
pulled it down to eat a banana the Red Cross 
tossed us from their truck after the storm 

I didn't even remember that           it had happened until 
     I took my mask down to 
eat figs thirty years later—some 
parts          they keep themselves hidden 
certainty is the myth 
we let 
          go

Rhienna Renée Guedry is a queer writer and artist who found her way to the Pacific Northwest, perhaps solely to get use of her vintage outerwear collection. Her work has been featured in Empty Mirror, HAD, Gigantic Sequins, Bitch Magazine, and elsewhere. Rhienna is currently working on her first novel. Find more about her projects at rhienna.com or @cajunsparkle_ on Twitter.
ISSN 2157-8079
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