OVER HERE, AUTUMN BLAZE

 

OVER HERE, AUTUMN BLAZE

       --for Leslie & Spencer Hatton

         and for Little Giant Fire #2

on the deck, making my street

sign, Autumn Blaze, the great maple,

its canopy a shield, eats up the smoke,

leaves with their five points extended,

working non-stop, cleaning the air,

a miracle of community organizing.

Air underneath Autumn Blaze, clean.

Until I leave the yard for the street

witness for Ukraine, I don’t know

this myself. Smoke from fires,

foul, dangerous like the war—of

course—it’s part of the war,

the fires. It’s Thursday and I join

20-or-so others, witnesses. This is their fifth

year of vigil, and I joined them

last year. One can’t see the Maple’s

work, but sitting underneath it

one breathes free. I have a new sign

today. I don’t give my signs titles,

they’re working signs, matter-of-fact,

you might call this one, Chekhov

in Ukraine. I’ve taken pastoral images

from his stories and travel, details

that move my heart, like this one:

‘a tall Ukrainian, long-nosed, long-armed,

white shirt, embroidered collar, balloon trousers,’

from The Steppe. from a letter, ‘I am

completely enchanted,’ on my sign.

These street signs are shields,

after Hephaestus—his immortal work

for Achilleus—that shield, that one--

model for Ukraine, workers harvesting

grapes, disrobing young lovers--

you can hear their kisses—and music

coming out of streams of silver!

When I came back from war

60 years ago, my professor calling it

a newspaper—last image Hector’s men

would see before Achilleus’ sword

entered their bodies--domestic. My street sign come

from this vision, on cardboard,

disintegrating in weather, hauled

in and out of the car, ephemeral

in traffic,--but make no mistake,

cut from the same metal

Gods gave Hephaestus—standing

with Ukraine, standing against fires,

the one here in Yakima Valley, Union Gap--

the one where you live—that one,

too. And that war. The war in Ukraine,

the same war, same conflagration

as the one where you live--

devastation reaching from ocean

to ocean, blue-band of water encircling

Achilleus’ shield, magnificent

part for the whole, leaping all boundaries.

Jim Bodeen

27 July—29 August 2026