the good people & the bad,
salvation or damnation

if you want to be happy
don’t look at things that make you sad

i don’t want to make you
look sad but

they’ll have to use the letters for names
again & again — nothing but letters

most named storms
latest named storm

an environmental toolkit
could save you if you had one

just follow your bushfire
survival plan

local people called it paradise but
yr safest option is to leave now

a positive southern annular mode
spells big big trouble always

40 ducks, 25 chicken, 11 geese, &
1 man under a motorway bridge

submarine earth: it just happened
so quickly: the water thigh-level

you try to save some things but in
reality, you just couldn’t

the majority of them are having to eat
bugs, selling farm implements

we’ve been living on the embankment
for 6 mo. & we have no warm clothes

challenges to their ethnic survival
emotional, mental, spiritual health

when honeybees smelled the smoke,
it was like a fire drill on a submarine

es algo bueno, i hear from downstairs
i could walk across the bay in winter

shifting baseline syndrome
fries an egg on the sidewalk

just wait for the normals to catch up
the sun throws light across the floor

59% of americans say
“the earth will be eco-friendly
by 2042,” with 0% waste
& 100% renewable energy,
and i say,

“what planet do they live on?”
the planet where they don’t
read the news.

“the survey also suggests that
americans tend to ignore their
personal responsibility 
& feel their own carbon footprint*
is not making an impact on
the warming world.”
                                                      planet denial --
or as we call it in america,
“optimism.”
                               “everything’s
going to turn out just fine.
now please get the
hell outa my lane!”

in 2020:
more than 3 billion humans face
water shortages;
more than 1.5 billion humans face
“severe water scarcity or even drought”:
per capita water ↓ 20% in 20 yrs
(this per the u.n., but then
they’re always warning us
about stuff, right?)

2 major hurricanes in november
(1st time that’s every happened)

2 biggest fires in colorado history
still burn, despite being snowed upon
(zombie fires — they’re not
just for siberia anymore!)

& across the west, kids
breathed in the smoke, too;
looks like breathing it in
can cause “genetic changes
in children’s immune cells”
(don’t even ask me about what
it does to animals)

as for the news,
let’s telescope things:
orange-sized hail in n. s. africa;
cyclone hits tamil nadu;
1k homes flooded in c. sumatra;
temps in 110s in n.s.w.;
“inner city of são paulo totally flooded”;
ef-2 ‘nado hits near dallas;
200 israelis rescued from floodwaters;
so hopefully, reading it scrunched
together will feel scarier than a
drip drip drip — because

we
are an optimistic people.
and as long as we hold onto
a glimmer of hope,
we will do nothing.

______________________
* 17 tons/yr. on avg. Of those who tried to estimate their footprint, ⅔ weren’t even close.

. . . & the fourth frog thinks
“how could anyone worry
about boiling alive
at a time like this? there’s a
pandemic on! we have more
urgent things to think about”
(this, before they are “done,”
when they don’t think anything)

but i am determined to have
as much hope as the young folks
& act accordingly;
although i am determined to write
a chronicle as factual as i.

when hitler gave a “scorched-
earth” order, the officer in
the fürerbunker refused;
but our embunkered president
put fanatikers in place
who proceed with the
scorching apace,
while
“scientists consider
wild plan to
dim the sun
to save earth”
(i’d like to have dim sum
with those dim bulbs on
an unsaved earth),
while
cambridge, mass. will stick
warning labels on gas pumps
(“the surgeon general
has determined that burning
fossil fuels,” etc.):

one does what one can,
based on what one thinks
one knows

e.g., “underwater heat blob”
unfreezing the arctic, un-
locking airborne heat blobs

so that moscow could be
snow-free in dec. last year

& toronto just concluded warmest-
ever stretch of november temps
on sunday, w/almost 8” of snow
(most on nov. 22 since 1937)

funny weather they’ve been having,
huh?

things are gettin hella wonky:
“roller-coaster” would fit as metaphor,
if roller-coasters went underwater for
days at a time

& it’s what happens after the disaster
that’s disastrous: the ash in
your drinking water; the sewage-
filled water in your streets; your
food shortages; people crowded
in shelters during a pandemic;
100s of 1000s more shelterless,

a future designed by
jerry bruckheimer

people in somalia walking through
waist-high water, floating their stuff
on rafts; baghdad streets submerged;
in s. sudan, bashir james sez
“getting wet wasn’t an issue. currents
and crocodiles were” --
& even the old folks can’t remember
this much rain . . .

(“whatevuh — sh*thole countries” --
after we got finished with them,
anyhow)

i promise not to be surprised if, once
upon a future day, i feel
nostalgic for 2020, or feel
like it served me well
as practice

so, the cartoon shows two frogs,
sitting in a pot of water; one
reads the paper w/a head-
line “vaccine’s coming” & sez
“yay, some good news!” while
the pot is licked by flames under-
neath, labelled “climate crisis.”

why are editorial cartoons so
seldom funny? unless maybe
you are some god, watching
some farce play out

b/c remember that massive drop
in co2 emissions last spring?
well, turns out it didn’t stop
the concentrations from
rising exponentially; but
at the time we sed
yay some good news.

but now, some slightly-
less-bad news wd be welcome.

but weather news is not
the place to find it:

e.g., first hurricane ever to
strike somalia struck
yesterday, the strongest ever
measured in the n. indian ocean
                       (warmer ocean
temps = strong storms, it
turns out); while in honduras,
shelters filled up fast, so victims
of eta & iota sleep rough under
overpasses, neighborhoods
still flooded; “what will we have
when we go back? nothing,” sez
“housewife irma sarmiento”;

& tides are getting higher in
charleston (s.c.); basketweaver
vickie hicks tell us “god
is taking back his land”;

& from the wtf dept.:
tornado in ontario; tornado warnings
on cape cod & martha’s vineyard;   but
in e. cape, south africa's
biggest-ever tornado touched down —  
1000s houseless, roofless humans,
swaddled in “disaster blankets.”

meanwhile

3.4 m acres burned in bolivia
this yr, in the midst of massive
drought; the guaraní people who
live there, like aldemar flores, say
“the lack of water is suffocating
our communities. . . . they
can’t plant, and the livestock
begin to die”;

& scientists report 1200-3000
“excess deaths” from california
wildfires this year (all that smoke);

& as the smoke clears from
last month’s massive wildfire in
new zealand, “fire & emergency”
advises “have a non-flammable
doormat” (among other things);

& did i mention that europe
recorded its hottest-ever oct.?

anyway.
in that cartoon (in my imaginary
version), the next frame shows
the other three frogs, thinking,
“boiling will affect
other frogs, but not me”; or
“global boiling is a hoax
perpetrated by frogs in the deep
pot”; & the last frame shows
the poor frogs, bloated bellies
up, long stiffened legs stretched
taught, coming along nicely

are you a weed?

wow. wow.

what is that down in the roots
& tubers of your alveoli?

nothing can auto-
correct for this

not carbon capture, not
hydroxywhatevah.
i feel so so nostalgic for
rationality.

“this can’t be happening.
it’s not real,” sez
the dying covid patient.

no weeds ever.

the multiple typhoons in the philipines
can’t be happening;

the stationary downpour in nicaragua
is not real; the human bodies
they’re digging out in honduras
are maybe mannequins;

the freezing typhoon in vladivostok
can’t be happening;

the record rain in seoul
is not real;

the displaced people in java
don’t exist;

the locusts in victoria
can’t be there;

the tennis-ball-sized hailstones
in s. africa definitely are not real;

90-degree temps in the u.s.
can’t be happening in nov.;

the new wildfires in california
& nevada are not real — just
ask the 1k humans who were
not evac’d;

2,556 additional people did not die
of heat stroke in britain this summer;

the record hi-lo in demark wed. nite
never happened (even the weather
news is fake!);

the melting subsea permafrost &
shallow methane hydrates bubbling up
in concentrations of atmospheric
methane above the fields
(86x more potent than co2 as green-
house gas) reaching 16-32ppm

is so so not real b/c
so so boring, & is so
not the thing that’s
going to kill us all;

and most of all, remember:
this verse-chronicle
will never ever come to an end.

the wind
the wind
                          the wind
the wind

when wilt thou blow

a sea
                of seeds

drifting over tall grass

it really does roar

around here — where
hi’s have run 10 degrees f
above normal this month --
it looks like a dry & roaring
winter is a-comin’ in

50 mph gusts — no tornado,
no microburst, no derecho,
just wind and wind and wind
maybe will prove our fate

but better than 200 mph gusts:
that’s what nicaragua got
out of #30 named storm iota:
an almost-cat 5, the kind
that only hits 1ce in 37 yrs,
but it’s the second in 2 weeks . . .
62k humans in govt. shelters,
houses not one iota left

& ½ m w/o power in n.e. u.s. mon.,
toppled trees & power lines, ripped
roofs from louisville to boston,
tornado warning in n.y.c.

latest-ever 90f temp in phoenix
(last summer arizona’s hottest);
new zealand: this winter
hottest ever
                                     while in
tabasco state in mexico,
72,000 humans homeless
after govt. opened dam spill-
ways after flooding from eta

& they’ve got water up to their
eaves in bulacan province,
philipines; president blames
typhoons on global heating &
calls for those responsible (us)
to pay to clean up after it

no rains large or small
around here — desiccated
fall drops down:

leaves fly
seed-puffs fly by

(masive limb just
missed the house)

what heraklitos sez:
everything flies

229 days at ≥ 50 f in nederland:
yep, a record. (meteorologist sez:
“this is quite special”)

crimea dries up: worst water
shortage in 150 yrs of records;
reservoir bottoms crack in open air,
people drill farther down “in
desperation”

≥ 69 humans dead in philipines
after hurricane vamco,
+ power out in manila (21st
typhoon this season — nothing
on atlantic’s 30, but pacific’s
even stronger), 1000s
rescued from dam break, as
duterte jokes w/officials re:
having “too many women” lol

& c. america still wallowing in
massive damage from hurricane eta,
wch “in 36 hrs went from depression
to a v. strong cat 4 — probably the
fastest spinup to a major hurricane
in history,” sez cli-sci guy

(just get out of bed & stand up,
joe        have another
pot of coffee, before
the price spikes)

“marine heatwave” off new zealand;
land heatwave in queensland, au.;
wettest nov. ever in perth

ranchers in the west u.s.
sell off their herds, as drought turns
grassland into weeds

finally, watch this “heartwarming”
video of polar bears climbing
into a garbage truck (“look! --
babies!”) & then
to go back &
hibernate some more

good evening, mr. & mrs.
earth: here's the news from
the news-from-poems
dept.: . . . 28% of world’s
largest wetland,
the pantanal in s. america,
burns.

it makes up 3%
of the total wetlands
on the planet.

wetlands are the best
carbon sinks
on the planet --
or the best carbon-emitters,
when they burn . . .

but now i’m talking about
concepts . . . not as compelling as
100s of human beings
buried when half a mountain
shuffles down on 'em
or
200k humans evac’d in c. america
after hurricane eta, as another
cyclone burbles up & heads
their way: “we
have a covid situation, we
have dengue, we
have other vectors we
are monitoring. now we
are waiting for the
development of
the next storm” --
while n. carolina gets the
dregs of eta, w/10” of rain,
7 dead from all the ways people
die in flash floods

& in the rest of the u.s., most of us
remain in or enter into
drought territory

(imaginary review of this
verse-chronicle:
“doom scrolling with
literary pretensions”)

what else? let’s see . . .
north pole temp rose
above freezing yesterday . . .

hottest oct. ever in c. russia . . .

yesterday a.m. woke up to
27 f here; but p.e.i., canada,
started their day at 61 . . .

record hi’s in maine,
record lo’s in the sierras . . .

(you can get the “long-term trends”
from noaa and epa & shit like that:
we give you live-action x-tremes
in front of your face --
blow-up action, baby!

b/c otherwise, nothing gets
yr attention)

53k i.d.p.’s
(internally-displaced people)
so far, in somalia’s seasonal rains
(i.e., floods) . . .

& philipines slammed by
yet another typhoon, 39
dead, 32 missing — 350k evac’d:
all this, after
hurricane goni washed away
270k houses

& where are
the families
of the dead & what
are they doing?

(“the quality is uneven, the plot
takes wild hairpin turns, the whole
is overdone, withal.”)

well, yep. you gotta
work w/what you’ve got,
which may be de trop,
or maybe not enough,
too late, whatever,
we'll see

round the bend
over the top

the prez sez: “thanks 4 yr service
. . . [suck-errrs] . . .”

o save us big daddy
for we know not what we do

but big daddy's dyin’ a cancer . . .

beyond the pale
past the point of

yet another hurricane, but
the record’s been set already,
already! . . . 29 named storms
in atlantic, meanwhile, snowstorm
in the n. great plains & prairie
provinces breaks some records,
then becomes t’storm (w/tornado
watch) in midwest

but i hate “content” — there is
too much content in this
historical life, too many
happenings happening

but when you can’t get in-
surance, then you’ll know it’s all
for real . . .

miami looks like venice but
without all the boats; & humans
say what they always say
about the same things,
as in
“there was howling wind all night,
so you just hear this creepy sound”
and
“all these cars trying to cross
intersections and just getting wrecked”
or
“huge amounts of water have turned
the streets into rivers,”
then
“glacial melt water is pooling
into lakes and causing
devastating floods . . . then
when water is needed most
for irrigation later in the summer,
we're seeing shortages . . .”
or
"i hope people will never get tired
of helping us”
so
“knuckle down for a big
clean-up”
could be said most anywhere

floods in congo; no rain in zimbabwe
n. korea admits to storm devastation,
n. korea now admids scorching heat;

people carrying their bundles
of stuff, climbing the hillside or
walking the road, clinging to gunwales,
covering bodies or yanking debris,
wait in the mud by a school for a place
on the floor, guatemala, honduras,
chiapas, tabasco, cd be anywhere
& is

nov. 9, 10 a.m., 69˚ f
+ the power is out.    & o --
we’re under a wind advisory, too.

you’d think this was california
not kansas . . .

hi y’day ~ 20 f > normal
lo y’day ~ 25 f > normal
& that’s the way it’s gone all wk

is this the new normal?

                                               nuh-uh:

no such thing --
just the new
                                  newer new

(but fortunately, i hung
our clothes out & they’re getting
blow-dried naturally)

now i see a u.s. map with “cold”
at one end & a big arrow
pointing right at us . . .

baby’s it cold inside
in ok city, where as of
yesterday, 40k homes w/o
power, 10 days after ice storm

but better there than guatemala,
where eta sluiced
a hillside down, over dozens
of homes; 100+ human beings
missing presumed dead --
now the hurricane hits florida,
washes cars away, closes bridges . . .

warmest aug, sept, oct in
california history (i.e., human,
not natural); while arizona
marks 15 yrs of drought, worst
in 110 yrs of records; &
they’re breaking nov. hi
records in finland (one amongst
lots of punctilious data points)

& more floods everywhere,
incl. deserts (e.g., libya);
worst nile flooding in 100 yrs;
vietnam, phillipines wrecked by
typhoon + typhoon + typhoon

but now? well now
never you mind:
a newer new american
president takes the helm &
all this will go go
away anew

but they’re drawing up
the enemies lists all
through the house, white
red and blue alike, as tho
everybody just wanted
to get all the armageddin’
over with