Anne Goldman, Professor of English, has published "Air Traffic" in Fourth Genre, Fall 2023
"Air Traffic," a 3,047-word essay, uses a strange, small catastrophe during fire season in California to reflect upon our hunger for rural life and the damage we inflict upon it.
You can read the full essay at https://www.annegoldmanwriter.com/essays or download it from Fourth Genre.
"After the Kincade fire, flocks of waxwings descended upon the firethorn shrub outside my California cabin. Smoke and heat thwarted the birds till mid-November. Now they had arrived, and the berries were abundant—also, fermenting. The previous tenant had cut decals into the silhouettes of birds and smoothed them onto the windows that frame the garden. The first time I confronted these avatars, I worried they’d beckon rather than discourage their breathing relatives. But I’m far from an authority on animal behavior." - Anne Goldman, "Air Traffic"