The air for months
            an apocalyptic blanket,

jaundiced shimmer from stones and dirt.

                   How does your

world end?                   A pandemic
for real next time,

wet bulb temps settling
along your latitude sooner than expected,

a decade          from now       or three?
Do you require

global holocaust, or is a burnt town, town
            by town
enough? How far away is Talent, Oregon

Paradise, California. How near

is here it is. We walk outside breathing
ash, breathing bone, sucking whatever
we can into lungs, thick greasy air

enshawling our shoulders,
robes we’ll be wearing till
the end.

– Claudia Putnam

Author’s Note: “Raiment” is part of a chapbook MS composed at Hypatia-in-the-Woods in 2021.