“we need yr leader-
ship, young people,” sez the senator over his reading glasses. but greta t. is having none of it: “pls save yr praise – we don’t want it. don’t invite us here & praise us without doing anything about it. honestly, this kind of meeting doesn’t lead to anything” so, it takes someone w/ autism to cut the bullshit. fine. the ancient greeks called it parrhesia meanwhile, here, @ 38° 58' 18" n / 95° 14' 6" w, we reached 92 f yesterday (norm 81); lo, 69, norm 54; sept rain: 0.47” norm to date: 2.51, & our “second august” more than halfway over – tho doesn’t mean there won’t be a third . . . (only 77% humidity, 9 a.m. – not bad): caused by same hi pressure dome that’s caroming tropical storms out into the atlantic, away from these united states – apt metaphor for our sense of ex- emption – unearned, since yet another deluge hits dakota farm country; record heat in hawai’i; baton rouge sees hottest sept. recorded; wettest sept. so far in green bay; & the n. hemisphere endured hottest summer in history. but now let us use our writerly imaginations to picture masses of humanity arising, friday at noon, & walking forth from office & workshop, 1,000 empty kitchens 1,000 mill-lofts gray, & leaning against some tall building – say, exxon-mobil hq. – until it falls over: tropical storm imelda will have saturated the ground (most since harvey), so the base will already be loosened (we will say “timber!” in the interests of fair play); & the senators won’t be able to get a burger to go b/c the staff in the cafeteria won’t be there – they’ll be w/everyone out front – waving signs or throwing week-old dinner rolls through the windows. we have to demonstrate there is no center of the world any more, only new coastlines, tinderfields, flood plains, desertifications & melt: that’s why it’s called a demonstration, or call it an experiment, which means “experience” – tho u.s.americans only experience a sliver: new s. wales farmers, desperate for rain, get hail instead, wipes out crops; "what are you doing? are you clearing around the property? your gutters? you need to be thinking about this. What is your plan for your pets? Your stock if you have stock?” meanwhile, torrentialing in e. spain, w. norway, trains shut down in germany; state of disaster (drought) declared in zimbabwe; zambia will have to import electricity, since hydro dams don’t have enough hydro to spin turbines; slash & burn in borneo, sumatra, 1k wildfires, smoke spreads over s.e. asia; & o yeah, flammable lakes in siberia – that one’s a gas. no, you’re right, you have no control of the outcome, it’s true; but you don’t do what you can do do you?
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June 2021
Kristin Prevallet Author/Editor
I'm a writer & teacher in Lawrence, Kansas who actually believes the scientists. I wrote a book of poems called Of Some Sky that seems to have something to do with all this. |