Ray Rasmussen
Legacy
July 11, 2023
The forests up north have multiple wildfires. Communities are besieged by smoke and the threat of losing everything.
I step onto the porch to get a clear signal, phone my daughter. “You and the kids okay?”
“There’s no fire here, Dad, but the residence home is filled with evacuees from a nearby town. There’s a COVID surge too, and so many of our staff are sick, I’m working double shifts.”
Any frogs or locusts appearing in your yard?* I think of asking, but don’t. Instead, I say under my breath, “It’s not your fault.”
“What? I didn’t hear that, Dad.”
I keep thinking of my generation’s decades of climate change denial, of corporate greed and political inaction. What have we left you?
“Just good to know you’re all okay.”
among sparrow chatter two chirps of "love ya"
* The line about frogs and locusts is a reference to the 10 plagues mentioned in the Bible, which according to the Bible were imposed by the deity as punishment for human wrongdoing, particularly that on the part of the Egyptians. Taken from “The Ten Plagues: Natural Disasters or Divine Intervention?” McGill University Office for Science and Society.
About the Author
Ray Rasmussen resides in Edmonton, Canada. His haibun, haiga, haiku, articles and reviews have appeared in the major print and online haiku genre journals and several anthologies. He presently serves as Encore editor for contemporary haibun online and technical advisor for Drifting Sands Haibun. Ray’s Blog is “All Things Haibun” and his haiku-genres website is “Haiku, Haibun & Haiga.”