i would prefer not to
write about the 100 people killed by cyclone amphan, but glad it wasn’t 100k; still, "i have never seen such a disaster before,” the state chief minister sez: roofs blown off waves whipped up embankments, bridges swallowed, villages w/o water, electricity, contact w/the “outside world”; kolkata streets rendered riverine, or crissrossed w fallen trees & power lines, airport inundated; “many initially decided to stay home assuming the storm would dissipate. as rain and wind gathered strength, thousands rushed for help, over- whelming the refugee facilities”; “it becomes almost impossible to maintain social distancing, personal hygiene, wearing mask and even quarantine centers are converted into cyclone shelters.” i would prefer not to report that lake victoira’s shoreline has grown 10 km, that 100k people are displaced in kenya, their numbers swelling daily; or that another 8 people have died in w. uganda after another riverbank burst; floods, boulders, locusts . . . i would prefer not to write about the 12.4k acres burnt in n. cyprus, 80% of olive trees destroyed; i would prefer not to write about the tittabawassee r. in michigan, a record 10’ above flood stage (tho it is fun to say “tittabawassee,” provided you don’t live near it today); or the 100-yr-old dams, cited as illegally dangerous, that broke (“our infrastructure was built for a different climate” sez the engineer); i would prefer not to write about the 7” of rain that fell in the mid-atlantic states, rivers cresting & dams in doubt; i would prefer not to write about temp records broke (like the 108˚ f in san angelo, texas yesterday); i would prefer not to even know about the 400 sq km burning in saskatchewan; and if i don’t, maybe we won’t which is just as good as its never having happened; but i sometimes do that which i don’t prefer, sometimes have to, more and more
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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. |