i bring up omar
el-akkad’s book american war: the south secedes (again), this time when the feds try to outlaw fossil fuels; & my cousin says, “i think it’s more likely to break down urban / rural rather than by states this time. it would be more like the breakup & war in yugoslavia. i doubt i could drive to memphis w/o going through several checkpoints of heavily armed white boys” (ones w/big gas-burning pickup trucks, just to make a point). sez my wife: the harrington men each have their own dystopia (ha. ha. ha.) meanwhile, social organization seems to be holding up pretty well around here . . . they’re even re- paving the streets. and if i can’t see it, it’s not happening. aug. 12 temps, l.f.k.: hi: 95 / norm: 90 lo: 73 / norm: 66 rain mo. to date: 4.06 normal rain mtd: 1.29 but elsewhere? – tornadoes in central amsterdam, in luxembourg, in new zealand; lightning at the north pole . . . signs ‘n’ wonders, y’all; typhoon lekima: 116 mph winds, 6.2” rain in 1 hr, 1.2 m evac’d, dozens dead & missing in zhejiang; $2.5 b losses & counting (u.s. only lost $1 b so far this yr); video of large buildings melting into torrents; china’s 9th 2019 typhoon so far; pakistan: most monsson flood deaths caused by “roof collapse & electrocution” – adults wading waist-hi water, kids, up to neck; 100s of 1000s displaced in myanmar this year or killed in mudslides, floods (those poor people – funny weather they’ve been having); millions force-flooded out by monsoons in india – the n.e. & w. coast pummeled by downpours; tamil nadu gets more rain in 24 hrs than ever before; while drought in n. & s. states; droughts, crop failures also in chile, australia (@ least sydney has a desalination plant); & remember the “polar vortex”? now the “antarctic vortex” brings snow to e. australia for 1st time in decades (which, dinesh d’souza sez, is proof global warming n’existe pas: any contrary evidence dis- proves a premise, right?) meanwhile: “cloud of smoke & soot bigger than the european union billows across siberia” from three-month-old fires, “extending the duration beyond even the most persistent fires in the 17-year dataset” from european satellites; oymyakon, coldest inhabited place on earth (normally) now hotter than majorca (but the sun shines brightly here in lawrence – the temps sort of normal, even); 50 forest fires in greece; wildfires continue in greenland, alaska; “temps either tied or broken previous record highs every day in hilo, kahului, honolulu”; galveston, tx highest low temp ever (86 f) – but i occupy only one spot – how can i account for events in disparate parts? how encompass the globe, like sherwin-williams “cover the earth” (or was it “coat”?), instead of breaking it up into little bits? only imagination will do it, but will it? & if it does, what will it do?
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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. |