Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

In Florida, even the cold is warm by comparison
We sit at the ocean’s lip as it licks the sand from our toes . . .
. . . I ask the lifeguard not to hang the purple flag
For jellyfish and sting rays and the floating terror

— Julie Marie Wade / “Atlantic Elegy”

as a child, i learned
while killing, do not think about being killed

— Ollie Schminkey / “The First Rule of Buoyancy”

The 10 years with the highest daily average temperatures have occurred between 2015 and 2024, Copernicus researchers found.

— Andrew Freedman / “Earth just likely set its hottest day on record in thousands of years” / Axios

i write about urban bleeders and breeders, but am
troubled because their tragedies echo mine.
at this moment I am sickened by the urge
to smash.

— Wanda Coleman / “American Sonnet (95)”

Theres a new kind of extreme weather scorching the planet. Soaring temperatures now go hand in hand with monstrous humidity levels, and together they can make it almost impossible for the human body to regulate its own temperature. As the frequency of these humid heatwaves increases, so does the risk to human life.

— Bill McGuire / “Too Hot to Live” / BBC Science Focus

You know what it feels like to hold
a burning piece of paper, maybe even
trying to read it as the flames get close
to your fingers until all you’re holding
is a curl of ash by its white ear tip
yet the words still hover in the air?
That’s how I feel now.

— Dean Young / “Belief in Magic”

When the tendrils of human society retreat from you so that you are no longer within the warmth of the tribe’s embrace but also no longer ensnared within the mesh of its netting—you can get a little kooky.

— Eugene Lim / “What We Have Learned, What We Will Forget, What We Will Not Be Able to Forget” / New Yorker

What I’m Listening To:

Maybe a long dark night is coming down
Maybe a long dark night, my precious
one
Maybe a long dark night is rolling around my head

— Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds / “Long Dark Night”