Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

In life, I was rigid.
I had a treatment plan.

I had a prism. It bent the light.
I mistook it for vision.

— Lisa Wells / “13.”

A good way to marginalize the most dangerous political movements is to prove the success of your own. If liberals do not want Americans to turn to the false promise of strongmen, they need to offer the fruits of effective government. Redistribution is important. But it is not enough.

— Ezra Klein & Derek Thompson / Abundance

Cousin Death joins a table at the wedding,
the white cloth gleams, the waiting plates,
all are made welcome.
Mother War smooths the silk of her dress,
she feels young and will dance again, after years,
with her husband‚ Pity.

— Jane Hirshfield / “The Wedding”

The years from 2015–2025 have been the hottest stretch on record, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization. For the first time, the report includes a measure called Earth’s energy imbalance — the difference between incoming energy from the Sun and the amount radiated back into space — which is at its highest level since observations started in 1960. And in 2024, the latest year that global figures are available, atmospheric CO2 reached its highest concentration in two million years. “In this age of war, climate stress is also exposing another truth: our addiction to fossil fuels is destabilizing both the climate and global security,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement.

— Flora Graham / “We’ve just had the 11 hottest years on record” / Nature Briefing

. . . for when the doors are knocked in
hot metal to force my poem where my mouth is
as a kingdom in the 21st century buys one nation
to obliterate another
our commander pins the future to a magic orb
and gives ol’ reliable a spin
he is rewarded handsomely
while the children starve.
as practice i light prayer candles
the way one would a spit
we are royally fucked
unless we tenderize the rich.

— jess rizkallah / “bootstraps”

All of this can be stopped. A better America is around the corner.

And protest is the first step to that better future. We know that non-violent protest works. It helps to stop authoritarian takeovers. And it opens the way for a better politics to come.

— Timothy Snyder / Bluesky post

My first language was memory.
The skin of my face my manuscript.

— Lisa Wells / “13.”

What I’m Listening To:

We put up our tent on a dark green knoll
Outside of town by the train tracks and a seagull dump
Topping the bill was Horse Face Ethel and her Marvelous Pigs in Satin
We pounded our stakes in the ground, all powder brown
The branches spread like scary fingers reaching
We were in a pasture outside Kankakee

— Tom Waits, Kathleen Brennan & Ken Nordine / “Circus”