Lynne Viti, a lecturer emerita at Wellesley College, is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Westwood, Massachusetts, a small town south of Boston. Her poem, “Westwood Lodge, the Summer Hotel,” was awarded third place in the 2023 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Contest. Her most recent poetry collection is The Walk to Cefalù (Cornerstone Press, 2022). She facilitates a poets in the schools program and a biweekly poetry workshop at her local public library, and blogs at lynneviti.wordpress.com.

Warnings

In school we learned Vulcan harnessed the fire Mars made
but whether for tools or weapons is open to question.
Now vast parts of the Northeast are in flames.
We were warned that the fire was coming

knew the seas were warming, rising—
but we said that was an aberration.
In Phoenix doorknobs and sidewalks
caused third degree burns on the hands and feet.

Saguaro cactuses collapsed from the heat,
green creosote shrubs turned yellow.
Homeless shelters are full,
families sleep in the park.

Wildfires across Canada, smoke in Atlanta
searing days in the Southwest—
we have only ourselves to blame
for these fires gone berserk.