XXII. Control Burn. February 22, 2020

>driving Lyft

>get called out to the forest primeval

>into the Apalachicola National Forest

>down toward Crawfordville then down some dirt roads

>it is very dark in the forest primeval

>find a trailer in the woods

>pick up couple of Florida crackers

>my accent is not strange to them

>off we go

>girl says “Hey look out there, it’s still burning”

>dude says “Yep, it’s that control burn from today”

>I had to stop the car

>it was so pretty

>for real

>maybe fifty yards away, a pine tree glowed like Barad Dur

>aflame from root to crown

>the campfires of a hundred thousand orcs surrounded it, stretched to the horizon

>in the far distance, other burning trees were quasars marking other Mordors, other Saurons

>dude says “Looks like they’re welding it.”

>his metaphor bested mine

>showers of sparks were falling off the Eye

>we were compelled to sit there and watch it burn

>then we went to Dollar General