The Evening Redness in the West

As folks moved west to California's dream

its two-named city-states both drew a crowd.

Love fog? SF. Love heat, beach, and sunbeam?

LA. Yet both loved one thing not shared 'loud.

They loved what soil, rock, wood, creek, precipice

lay just beyond their city boundaries.

And so, with time, they moved: swapped stress with bliss,

pushed further out towards forests, browned or treed.

They built their homes amid the redwoods, oaks,

laced fire in threads on poles to power them,

decried small burns controlled due to the smoke.

This compounded for decades. Now: mayhem.

Our governments failed to reduce the threat,

and state's alight like one big cigarette.