“disaster readiness is like exercise,”
the editorialist sez, “it’s so boring- ly uncontroversial, it’s all too easy to agree that it’s important & then fail to act.” i guess we know that now. or know we wonder why the people in charge didn’t; or that they didn’t ‘cause nobody made them this summer it will seem as tho there’s no more c-virus; but we may have another record-hot summer . . . at our local wetlands this morning, i could hear the roar of traffic on the hiway -- the wheels of industry may be idled, but the wheels of vehicles turn — lots of them, their tailpipes still exhale . . . but it’s full-on springtime in n.e. ks. already! — redbuds, forsythia, violets, tulips; yesterday hi 81 f lo 62 (norm hi 65 lo 40) — up around 90 today, but hey, i’m sitting outside in shorts -- beautiful weather we’ve been having, huh? weird, but beautiful . . . jan. 2020 turned out to be the warmest jan. ever in the world, btw. they tell us not to feel guilty about what you are or are not doing: driving, flying, &c b/c it’s really a political issue; but what if you’re not doing politics? ready or not, meanwhile, death toll from inundations in s.e. tanzania rises to 24 this yr; "more floods: how terribly dreary!"; s. central iran flooding consumes $325 m (& 2 k head of livestock): “farmers who suffered from floods last year are once again facing a new catastrophe”; standing water after yemen floods birthed mosquitoes, which birthed dengue, which killed 59 & sickened 7400 (+ c-virus, natch); zambia had rainiest rainy season; & in papua new guinea, 60k folk lost houses, gardens to floods & the coral bleaches faster, the arctic ocean becomes the atlantic ocean, permafrost melts, releasing more carbon (+ microbes); highest methane releases in 5 yrs, blahdey blah blah, & rest assured that none of the catastrophes cataloged in this here verse chronicle have been cleaned up after or recovered from (guilt, arguably, deters us from doing evil or harmful deeds & impels us to do their opposite. i know it does me, but i was raised catholic, so . . .) it’s a weird feeling, seeing water seep in from under the walls of your house, esp. if it’s never flooded before, & see it rise to the bottom shelf as you scramble to put everything on the top shelf or tables, or clean up the stinking mildewy mess afterward; i’m talking about the us of a, where we have plenty of toxic mildew remover but seriously, what is your town going to do for you if yr house burns or floods or the tapwater starts to taste salty? or for the people from the gulf coast sitting homeless on your street? it can’t happen here they say & doremus sez the hell it can’t
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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. |