In town
I followed my mother down a winding forest path.
The trail head peaks through the trees that line the softball field down the street from my house. You wouldn’t know it was there if you weren’t looking for it.
Gnarled tree …
Culture
Agriculture, Place
Stacking Wood
This piece was originally written as part of a larger poetry and prose project that explored the author’s relationship with his family’s farm in Tennessee. Over a month-long span, he reflected daily on the lessons that the place and its …
Fracking, Place
Boom: Fossil Fuel Collisions
Fracking | Accident
The driver of the frackwater truck swerved because there was a little girl walking along the highway. She was walking eastward early that morning, not precisely on the shoulder, swerving in and out of the edge line the way …
Activism, Place, Waste Management
Beyond the Landfill
Every day, roughly 8,000 tonnes of rubbish are collected from the capital city of Jakarta before ending up at Bantar Gebang, the largest landfill in Southeast Asia. Just two decades ago, the area was covered with paddy fields before it was bought by the state and later converted into a landfill. Being in Bantar Gebang for the first time, I wasn’t …
Animals, Out West, Place
Rehabbing Rain
In the Shade of the Cottonwood Tree
I was born and raised in the desert. Like most desert plants and animals, I love rain. I live for rain. I live because of rain. Rain heals me, as it heals and …
Climate, Culture
No More Eternity in an Hour: Gardening, Time and the Climate Crisis
The dandelion’s rival grows tall, an iceberg in the border; its taproot matches the height of its spike of purple flower, each petal a new way to tell time. The group of lupins emerges every year in April – straggly, …