What did you do today, Billy asks

What did you do today, Billy asks. He is collecting fragments of dailyness from each of us. We are juxtaposed list poems in the making. I tell him I compiled my end of year student evaluations—second through fifth grade—for a grant, if there is a next year.  I ate stale vegetable chips because there was nothing else left in the house. I am in desperate need of coffee, and now it’s too late in the afternoon. It’s hot and muggy after our freak summer rainstorm, we might as well be in Florida. The rooster is complaining. We never get rain in June. I take that back. We sometimes do get rain in June, it’s unusual and when it comes with lightning, then we have wildfires. Not to mention humidity with a threat of arsonists. This last storm did not disappoint. Last night, an eucalyptus grove in San Rafael caught fire. They are like blow torches when they ignite. And the homeless freelance arsonist was finally caught on camera so the Russian River watershed did not go up in smoke—though he tried 11 times. People got mad and decided to do something about it. They mounted wildlife cameras on all the redwoods throughout the Russian River gorge, from Monte Rio to Rio Nido—and they finally caught him on tape. Or rather, digital. He was clever, changing his clothes, so he wouldn’t be recognized at the scene of the crime. The camera caught him removing his orange shirt as he rode off on his bicycle.  Earlier in the month, another homeless arsonist set fire to the inside of the largest redwood in the North Bay, it fell during a windstorm. Why do they want to bring these giants down? Redwoods already hanging onto the brink of extinction. These days I find myself weeping for the trees. A venerable age of trees is lost.