In an instant—fire! The fire surged unto eternity. Elementals perished amid flaming trees. The Keepers of Animals were consumed with the animals they could no longer protect. Insects with torched antennae and wingless butterflies stumbled, crumpled and died before tongues and mouths of voracious heat.

Even angels, with fiery wings resembling butterflies and feathered doves and dreams, felt terror and fled to the blackholes of oblivion in search of shelter. None but the Master of Fire remained to inherit absence and recolonize the burnt and lifeless land.

What too of the sea, not surging but sweating against the scorched rocks of shore? And what of God, dry-eyed in Heaven, who covered nostrils, lips and eyes, and torn his heart in half between titanic outrage and inconsolable pity?

Only the Master of Fire remained, turning his back on all questions as he leaned on the skeleton of his hoe and gazed at the blackened Earth with mirroring eyes and a slack jaw.

*According to Greek mythology it was the Titan Prometheus (his name meaning Forethought) who stole fire from the gods out of pity for humankind, but who was punished for this by Olympian Zeus. Prometheus is included in the title to add an archetypal or gestalt dimension to the condition depicted, suggesting that the sum of the tragedy is greater than the total of its parts.

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David Sparenberg, an eco-poet, essayist and storyteller, David Sparenberg is author of four books: EARTH KEEPER: an Ecosophy of Poems, EARTH CRISIS HUMAN CRISIS: Urgent Essays, BEING HERE & BELONGING: Visions, Talks & Meditations, volumes 1-3 in the Grassroots Reader Series, and CONFRONTING the CRISIS: Essays & Meditations on Eco Spirituality from Moon Books.  David lives in Seattle, WA in the Pacific Northwest of the United States.