Forest Fire by Olya K-Mehri

Forest Fire

Flames arrive like uninvited language—

everything suddenly fluent in orange.

Branches bend; warning.

Birds leave mid-sentence.

The air chokes on its own repetition.

They call it testimony.

Roots try to hold ground,

but the ground has moved on.

Ash erases shape,

leaves turn to letters no one can read.

To watch is to misunderstand:

this is not destruction,

it is the wood speaking louder

than you thought it could.

Olya K-Mehri is a London-born poet of Iranian heritage whose work explores nature, aesthetics, and our shifting connection to place. She is a researcher in environmental ethics and philosophy, and the founder of the Rooted Art Collective.