ZOZOBRA SMOKED BY HOPE AND FIRE

Zozobra’s got a streak going. As the enemy of all that’s good, Old Man Gloom was likely feeling pumped that for the second year in a row the dreaded coronavirus pandemic has a strangle hold on the world.

One thing he never learns, however, is that no matter how bad things are, the human heart never loses hope.

The other thing he never learns is that he should stay away from Santa Fe’s Fort Marcy Park on the Friday of Labor Day weekend.

A coronavirus-constricted crowd of about 14,000 people watched happily Friday as the 50-foot-tall monster marionette, growling and flailing his arms, went up in flames at the park, taking fears, grief and bad luck with him — at least for a while.

Zozobra will be back next year. But so will the hope and the fire.

EDDIE MOORE/JOURNAL Zozobra, clad in a Michael Jacksonesque Thriller jacket in a nod to the 1980s, wasn’t able to evade his fate on Friday night. Old Man Gloom went up in flames for the 97th time at Fort Marcy Park in Santa Fe.