Did you Know

when planes of

dry earth

crash together

the friction

sparks

 

Did you know

modicums

of precipitations’

love affair

with air

coruscates

 

All this praise

of the fire,

All this intimating

desire

 

Did you know

I once met

Skaftafellsjökull

 

Did you know

the Ice

bleeding frigidly

from humanities’

global phlebotomies

pooling towards the Arctic

told me

 

Her tributaries’

tintinnabulations

susurrating in my ear

just because she’s melting

doesn’t mean she’ll disappear

 

See her currents in our oceans

Her tides peel back long ferns of

macerated

deluged

Earth

 

the West thirsts

from her absence

as she consumes

Kiribati

 

waters surge

the Moon Also Rises

wielding her caduceus

Gravity

we barely knew thee

flirted a couple times

but electromagnetism

caught the eye

the Strong

and the Weak

Forces

hold

out

 

Save

up

your rain checks

and one day

you’ll be rich

in holidays

Of Doomsdays

we can say so much

speculation,

hoaxes,

warnings,

predictions,

Disaster Capitalism

who doesn’t like a little

murder mystery

the British can’t resist

being masters

Though they feign desistence

Americans kill

more than

a people

a plural

of ecosystems

we purge

through an addiction

to piquant alliteration

Marketing

to children is so easy

 

Did you know

When You Shop

You Save

millions from existing

 

Did you know

the same millions

are building a black hole

in the pacific ocean

Out of the plastic bags

my aborted fetus

crept off

to do my bidding

in the other worlds

in other words

 

Did you know

You Are the Shepherd

not Her bridegroom

and one of the Things

Shepherds must

Tend and Prune

Thin and Consume

 

Did you know

the difference

between

shopping

and shepherding

is personal

is blood

 

Did you know

there are plants

that live in symbiotic

relationships with animals

including even the most murderous one

humans can help

by picking and eating

but growing and feeding

maybe we ought to rethink

what we’re telling the robots

to tell us what we’re doing

is beyond zeros and ones

Not Everything is Binary

 

Did you know

the age old

boundaries between

alive and dead

can be queered

into a better understanding

of what is really dyeing

and what is already

dead

 

Did you know

ethics are not relative

and culture is

according to who wants to know

the anthropology of parasites

 

Did you know

as the moon appears to wane

and set on one hemisphere

the Moon Also Rises

Waxing,

in The Other

but In Truth

we wax

we wane

together

 

Much gratitude to D. and especially joy for your love and help in my education through our conversations and travels.

 

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Apprentice Editor: Lauryn DeGrado/Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

Photo: Blake Stone