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SF Ocean Beach sunset with smoke: image via NWSBayArea @NWSBayArea, 15 August 2015
SF Ocean Beach sunset with smoke: image via NWSBayArea @NWSBayArea, 15 August 2015
Haze of smoke from the fires to the north streaming down upon a hot wind trapping the routine accumulation of vehicle exhaust ozone particulates in a toxic midden
and that's why everybody's calling the authorities anxiously and why the fire trucks are roaring through the gray pall of dawn but as yet with nowhere specific to go, the blaze
of last night's sunset was a rusty blur above the ocean beyond the headland and the bridge fading finally into a long flattened russet cloud
that hung there over the unseen water through the sultry stinking evening until at about a quarter to four the traffic ebbed so that the only sound in the house became the growing
bell-like howl of the white cat with dementia
eight piercing wails pause eight more piercing wails echoing down the dark hallway
then rustling silence in the old clock-repairman's shop
then rustling silence in the old clock-repairman's shop
as if time had stopped
A watch and clock vendor sits in his shop in Seoul, South Korea: photo by Ed Jones/AFP, 29 July 2015