A smokey haze hangs in the late-spring air
it’s 4 am, before daybreak, 
the yard’s twinkling lights penetrate the opaque clouds
that move with precision and float with a balerina’s grace along the rolling foothills

Familiar winds carry ancient wisdom wrapped in plumes of grey smoke
and particulate in tow
The breeze caresses my face and tells me that the wild fires will soon tame
It’s hard to resist the promise, the wish of truth, when it rests on a whisper