just saw a “v”
of geese fly over, honking faintly – my first thought: see? the cycles of nature continue! my second thought: one day soon, we’re going to have to eat those suckers . . . (“there will be winners & there will be losers”) well, we here in the u.s. state of kansas are winners in the co2 reduction sweeps: ↓ 25% over last 10 yrs! (huzzah!) we got the wind, baby! except . . . were we a country, we’d still be the 60th biggest emitter world- wide: we still have all these cars and trucks and stuff in our state of 3 m souls (the actual 60th biggest emitter is norway, a nation of 5.3 m; the 60th biggest country is mali, w/20 m people – “but ach! all these numbers! in a poem! poets are not sup- posed to deal in numbers”; well, i prefer the term “verse chronicle” anyhow) you already know what happened in australia, future reader: “an area the size of denmark” (ominous way to begin a sentence) in flames in new south wales alone – rain forests become fire forests – areas “that have never burned in recorded history” (& 2019 was driest in recorded history); sydney hottest place on earth on saturday – 120 f; emergency mgmt. agency in canberra closes due to dangerous air quality; & meanwhile, men w/guns in helicopters shooting 10k feral camels today, by order of aboriginal leaders: the “pests” slurp precious water – “knocking down fences, getting in around houses and trying to get to water thru air conditioners” (hope that won’t be me some day; hope nobody shoots at me from helicopters) now new zealand’s turn: aukland’s sky darkened by smoke blown in from australia,& “100s of hectares” of forests in flames in e. of n. island meanwhile, bedroughted zimbabwe importing corn from mexico to stave off “serious food shortages”; dam levels less than ½ normal; dam levels in thailand 33-40%; drought in s. brazil driving up food prices (even more) while farther north, avg. temps in japan in 2019 hit highest level ever; & last winter the warmest in ireland since records began (119 yrs ago), while shanghai enjoyed a pleasant 70 f yesterday (record hi for 1/6); record jan. hi in norway; & record hi jan temps for s. tip of korean peninsula, too; meanwhile, dehli had coldest dec. day ever (49 f) on new year’s eve; & tel aviv got 70% of its avg jan rain in 20 min. on sat. (& 20% of annual in 2 hrs; 2 drowned in elevator – what a way . . .) deluge or drought, feast or famine or near-famine; & back here in kansas, winter wheat struggles – not b/c of spring & summer rains (still supersaturated, still flooding farther north), but b/c "the rain shut off in july”; some plants didn’t even sprout; “we'll probably see more farm auction sales because of this." the girl said there was no place like home & she meant kansas, but there are many places like here, or much worse off than here that won’t get the headlines or mention in an epic or chronicle of any kind
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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. |