I’ve tended to these ember-laden forests.
\nThis form belongs to this land,
\nand has lived in its fires from birth.
\nMy skin, no longer a mere scorched vessel, but a home,
\nopen and vulnerable against the sky.<\/p>\n
The rains are coming.
\nI can smell the sweetness in the ash and dirt.
\nNose to the ground, I am kneeling to what it’s taught me.
\nSilt water swells within my chest,
\nsputters from my mouth, my eyes.
\nGrasping the still red-hot embers of fires long dead,
\ngentle, with uncertain hands that shake,
\nI place them into my muddy mouth.
\nThe heat upon the tongue is uncomfortable, familiar.<\/p>\n
I chew, and chew, and chew, and… chew.<\/p>\n
Hot charcoal transforms into gravel,
\ngravel to grit,
\ngrit to sand,
\nsand to dust.<\/p>\n
A slow…
\ndeliberate…
\ncareful…
\ndigestion of the fire that licked soft skin and made it crumple.<\/p>\n
The rains are here.
\nIt unleashes its torrent, steam pulses, and embers crackle.
\nIts piercing descent upon the ground hurts no less than on my skin.
\nThe rain mingles with the groundwater, with salt tears and soda ash.
\nHisses from the scorched earth, thunders from above,
\ndrowning the sound from my ears as chest wracks and stomach heaves,
\ncoughing up the stale smoke tar, spewing the remnants of dust unbearable.
\nI allow the stinging downpour to cleanse it from my palms back to the drenched soil.<\/p>\n
Deep within, a howl emerges, raw and new:<\/p>\n
“Let me breathe in clear air
\nLet me exist without flinching
\nLet me hold the old wounds tenderly
\nLet me love without fear
\nLet me embrace kindness
\nLet me… be”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve tended to these ember-laden forests. This form belongs to this land, and has lived in its fires from birth. My skin, no longer a mere scorched vessel, but a home, open and vulnerable against the sky. The rains are coming. I can smell the sweetness in the ash and dirt. Nose to the ground, … Continue reading Scorched One<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4227,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"issue":[6885],"class_list":["post-2619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","issue-6885"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 12:16:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4227"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2619\/revisions\/2620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2619"},{"taxonomy":"issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gcc.mass.edu\/plum\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue?post=2619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}