Scars

Scales, black and shiny, circle the golden tan rings, smoothed edge.
They no longer reach to the sky but others stand close.
Their bodies are as black and scarred, golden spots shine where the dark skin has fallen away.
Their arms reach out through fluffy sleeves of green, bare to the ends.
Tears fall. Life is scarred but still it exists? Do they suffer?

I went towards Julian today. Took the old route 79 off of the 8east. I think I went up after the fires. The blackness and desolate area was heart wrenching then but today it seemed even sadder. The trees that are standing are losing their limbs. These were trees that didn't even look like they had been burned. Maybe it was the recent storms but there were so many of them broken. Then I got closer to the burn areas. Roads that were once wrapped in the cool warmth of the leaves and limbs of those trees are now barren, open to the sunlight, hundreds of black ringed stumps lining the roadside. Some pine trees that burned on one side and not the other stand at the side of the road.
By the time I got past this I was too depressed to stop in Julian and went through town watching the tourists who flock there for the shopping and the still lagging snow. I was not in the mood anymore. I couldn't drive back down that way either so I followed the 79 to Ramona stopping at Wynola on the way. Quieter, sedate little antique place. There was not as much damage on that side.
I thought of all the folks who were affected by the fires. I wonder how some of these folks face this every day and when will things be "normal" again. The guy who started the original fire and the difficulties that surrounded fighting the fires that ensued can be second guessed forever, but the amount of time it will take for "nature to get back on her feet" is beyond what I can imagine.