Elegy

for M

by E. R. Skulmoski

No. I do not want wildfires to be a metaphor
any more than 43,000 hectares of forests

disappearing one summer—cut short.
No. I do not want to be kept up all night,

thinking about the reasons why
some homes melted into a puddle

while others are spared or how a black bear
had to be euthanized after losing its paws.

No. I do not want to google the meaning
behind a burnt bird falling before my feet

or how a tree can burn from the inside
unseen by the naked eye and then fall over.

It is September now. Rain came too little,
too late. We drive past Squilax,

the mountain lost all her trees
and like you—none of them are coming back.

---

E. R. Skulmoski was born in Vancouver and raised in Hong Kong. She currently lives in the Interior of British Columbia with her husband and four children. Her work has been published in Ekstasis, Foreshadow, Heart of Flesh Literary Journal, and SOLID FOOD PRESS. You can read more of her work here: https://ofisandwas.substack.com/