i’ll help you—hold on—paradise is flailing—it’s too hot or too cold—too parched or waterlogged—the ice age is coming—the sun’s zooming in—the ice caps are melting—we’ve lost the sweet spot—418.90 ppm—1.2° C—meltdown expected—the wheat is growingthin—crises abound—keep hope alive—keep treading water—stay in the shade—steer clear of the plague—this too shall pass—or we’ll die striving—and after all this, won’t you give me a smile? (over—out)
What I’m Reading:
“. . . What good is accuracy amidst the perpetual scattering that unspools the world.”
“She always knew that she was too small and stupid to lead a revolution, but she had hoped she could at least imagine one. She takes a deep breath, attacked by an awareness of how impossible it is to learn and accomplish all that she needs to learn and accomplish before she dies.”
— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch
“we watch the red birds in the morning we hope for the quiet daytime together the year turns into air”
— W.S. Merwin / “The Solstice”
“‘We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.’ We had all simultaneously realised that our home was not limitless — there was an edge to our existence.”
— David Attenborough / A Life On Our Planet
“I miss who I was. I miss who we all were, before we were this: half-alive to the brightening sky, half-dead already. I place my hand on the unscarred bark that is cool and unsullied, and because I cannot apologize to the tree, to my own self I say, I am sorry. I am sorry I have been so reckless with your life.”
— Ada Limón / “Salvage”
“The science is clear: animal-based foods account for 57% of agricultural greenhouse gases versus 29% for food from plants. By cooking meat, people are cooking themselves.”
— The Guardian Editorial
“That is the trouble with writing a book about climate breakdown … By the time it is published it is already out of date. That is how fast things are moving.”
— Bill McGuire / The Guardian
“‘I live here!’ Ida yells. ‘And I think a person who’s lived here for over thirty years has a right to a peaceful home! A right to a balcony without any corpses on it!’”
— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch
What I’m Listening To:
“Do you want to make tea at the BBC? Do you want to be, do you really want to be a cop?”
Traveling sorts her memories. Driving to Miami sharpens her father’s voice—like acid catalyzing in her ears boring a ragged chute to her amygdala— simultaneously black-holing her backward and shooting her into an uncertain future full of Get to Know Jesus and Get Your Guns & AmmoHere billboards. She fights. She flees from all her ghosts. She barrels south—under the heat dome.
Tobacco leaves yellow—corn browns & withers—in her wake.
What I’m Reading:
“Nothing besides remain. Round the decay Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The line and level sands stretch far away.”
You brought a felon backbone to the party. You panned the bouffant directory to the left speakers and no longer backclothed the swish sultanas. You are indecent with your handcart ducklings, dripping wet florins, and praise-wet stampedes—your sister-in-law dirging past her dowry. You shave the filigree off handgun duds and clutter my late summer lunar eclipse with pinhole boxes and 3-D glasses. You fill me with inertia at 10:32 as the moonshine wanes and the penumbra fills my heart.
What I’m Reading:
“We’ve become accustomed to an impoverished planet.”
“Reading this book reminded me of watching a cat lick a dog’s eye goo.”
— Dwight Garner, review of Jared Kushner’s Breaking History / The New York Times
“She attaches her gaze to the machines, obviously longing for a return to the standard script, which demands nothing of strangers in public spaces but the exchange of a few half-smiles, to indicate that you won’t knife each other.”
— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch
“The planet has warmed by about 1 ° C since we began burning coal on an industrial scale and average temperatures are on track to rise by as much as four times that amount before the century is up; the last time there was this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, humans didn’t exist.”
— Naomi Klein / On Fire: The (Burning) Case for a Green New Deal
“A child born in 2020 will face a far more hostile world than its grandparents. Compared with someone lucky enough to be born in 1960, one study estimates that–on average–they will experience seven times more heatwaves, twice as many droughts and three times as many floods and harvest failures . . . Looking at the broader picture, anyone younger than 40 today will suffer ever more frequent bouts of extreme weather that would be virtually impossible in the absence of global heating.”
— Bill McGuire / Hothouse Earth: An Inhabitant’s Guide
“When God gives you more than you can tolerate, you turn to instinct. And instinct is a force beyond anyone’s control.”
—Ottessa Moshfegh / Lapvona
“The future isn’t cast into one inevitable course. On the contrary, we could cause the sixth great mass extinction event in Earth’s history, or we could create a prosperous civilization, sustainable over the long haul. Either is possible starting from now.”
— Kim Stanley Robinson / Guernica
“He wears his testosterone like a strong cologne.”
— Tess Gunty / The Rabbit Hutch
What I’m Listening To:
“So typically now I sent you an image You sent me a thumb down”
She is Splooting on the Sward (When Shooting Won’t Do)
One strong throat emerges to tell the straitjacket-story of a gifted and complicated mandible:
Her despots are both deeper and weirder—splooting rib-deep on American fangs. Her handguns—blue steel euphonies—flexible, transcend fanfare fortifications.
Her epistles rifle in candid installments. Her work seamless on the paintbrush—especially on maxims of broiler politicians about to lift-off, gerrymandered igloo divots, and ferret interiority. The most passionate voice ever on the matter.
Her pantoums never show properly on the third Tuesday of the month—on lesser tongues they sound tinny and pedantic—rhyme schemes rhizome into the fallow earth.
She is thee chaplain-malingerer: tormentor of numbskull litanies and bittersweet honesties. She is the genuine curve. The careful reproof. A committee of candid insteps not bound to overpronation.
She is an amphetamine throwback that emerges without deficits—a profound tonal restoration.
She is a healthy octave above will.
What I’m Reading:
“When I say ‘man,’ I mean ‘mankind,’ ” explains Moses. “Your speech is codified in patriarchal microaggressions.”
thee istsfor manity reader 