Last night I decided to erase all the old pictures from my camera and take it to work today. As I walked down O'Farrell to go get lunch in the Tenderloin I noticed the sky was filled with smoke. The site was kind of spectacular with the cathedral all hazy and monolithic in the background. As I approached, the smoke seemed to get even more black and I could actually see the billowing red flames. At first I thought it was a car fire. I wanted to get closer, but this man started running down the street yelling to get away because it was going to blow up. I decided to get lunch where I was and watch from a distance.

Apparently it was an underground fire caused by an electrical explosion. The flames were shooting out a manhole and it took firefighters at least 30 minutes to control it.

Talk about volatility - literally. It reminds me of a dream I had last year where downtown San Francisco caught fire. The cause, however, was entirely different. It was so vivid that it inspired me to write this poem:

I dreamed... (August 1st, 2008)

I dreamed of fire-
San Francisco
up in flames
from rage
in the hearts of youth.

a molotov cocktail
thrown to the sky
in feverish passion
twice up,
then twice
crashing down
into flames.

a moment of worry
a moment of confusion
of feeling lost

what is fire?
why does it burn?

fire is chaos
that brings about balance