Day Shift (unfinished)

Day Shift

Sleeping bags rustle
in the chilly morning dew
just before day break;
blurry men and women drag their aching bodies
from the warmth and comfort of fluffy down
to force their bruised and swollen feet
into leather boots hardened by the night’s cold.
They lumber toward the chow line
wearing knitted beanies,
curling their frozen hands
into stiff dusty pockets
or holding hot coffee in a Styrofoam cup;
their breaths dance out in front of their mouths.
A hot breakfast of mass produced
eggs, sausages and hash brown patties
are slathered with heaps of salsa for taste- or perhaps to hide it.
One cup of coffee becomes two or three
as eyes peel open to face
a pink and blue sky;
work boots mill around a damp field of dry grass and hard packed dirt
lined with pop-up tents, portable toilets and trailers.
The smoke is finally visible in the pale morning light
as the night’s inversion breaks into wisps
that dissolve into the crisp air.

A crowd converges on a color coded display of maps;
a tired man in a dirty yellow shirt speaks into a microphone
with too much cheer
for the exhausted morning mass.
The message is the same as the day before
with structures threatened, roads closed
and the fire crossing containment lines.
Assignments are handed out to soot stained hands
as high wind advisories ring in their ears.
The gathering splits off into trucks, engines and crew hauls
to form a convoy up the dusty mountain road
toward the rising column of charcoal gray smoke
while the night shift awaits relief.

A crew haul parks on a bare landing away from brush and grass
as bodies stumble out, don their gear, fire up chain saws
and line up like soldiers out to march.
Boots pound up the mountain side,
heavy with burden,
unleashing clouds of dust and ash onto sweaty brows
that squint into the morning sun that now sits above the horizon.
They nod to the night crew that’s passing on their way down:
faces streaked with black soot
wearing dusky yellow shirts crusted over with the ash and perspiration
from a week’s worth of pounding and digging at smoldering vegetation.