Orange Ball

Long day on the road –
blinking in the rural dark,
bleak white headlights
blind you briefly – passing,

passing – stark: you focus:
see the fire ripple –
glow behind a wave –
apocalyptic orange! –

brighter brighter blaze –
skull-top of a mushroom
cloud: what is this, and why?
Circle hits the sky:

looms into the night –
bursting from some mountain
range’s strange, elusive font:
moonlight in Vermont.


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