Red Eye
“Red Eye,” a contemporaneous poem about the impact of Canadian wildfires on a mid-Atlantic town, written Sunday, July 19, 2026 poem number 200(!) in a series of 365 poems written by Diana Ludwick in 2026. Photo by Diana Ludwick (c) 2026.
Sunrise is blood red
thanks to free-range Canadian fires
I inhale the acrid atmosphere
and squint with unslept eyes.
The air is "Code Purple"
which I have to look up
— because W.T.F. —
it means an "AQI of 300"
— which I also Google —
and I learn I should be
sheltering in a fitted N95 mask
to escape a world
which is doing its best
to unplug and reboot us.
If only there
was a metaphor in this.
