The Barren Pine Barrens

Crossing the Stretch

From Amagansett to Montauk
Through the dead Pine Barrens
The trees killed by pine beetles
Almost all of them
Sap sucked dry by the pest
Save for those saved from the blight__
Pockets of pine
Surrounded dead pines
Fallen staggering dry and gray
Awaiting a flame to burn them all
But not today
July 3
2026
Maybe some day
Maybe the 4th of July
Montauk is safe
No pines in the marshes
No pines in the Hither Hills
No pines in Montauk
Only before the Stretch
The Stretch is the only route
Out of Montauk
Other than the sea
And not all of us possess a boat
We ain't going anywhere, but here __

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Much more to come__

Burning California

Throughout the 20th Century California symbolized paradise to most Americans and millions of people from the rust Belt and Deep South and Dust Bowl deserted their hometowns to populate the Pacific state. Towns became cities and cities spread into the mountains as well as up the coast with a foreseeable cost.

Gone are the Los Angeles River, orange groves, and the girls in bikinis. The river is dry, the orange groves are suburbs, and the girls are fat, but even worse is the suburban sprawl has overstepped into the parched scenery and this week home owners in Santa Diego were attacked by Mother Nature as wind-whipped flames flashed across arid slopes to scorch multi-million dollars houses.

Burn baby burn.

Thousands have been evacuated from the path of these fires.

"When will they ever learn, when they they ever learn?" from the song WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE.

Obviously no time soon but then that's why we love California.

It can always be re-invented as something else.

To hear Pete Seeger sing WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE, please go to the following URL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y2SIIeqy34