Ring in two by twos,Twinning from the same root. Count the yearsOh! The years —You can only see themWhen they’re sliced in two.Cut down, dismembered,See what they’ve been through: The summers, the winters,The hunters, the gatherers,To them: time is celluloseAnd the sound of water coming close. I see you. Your bark couldn’t save you.What you built over the agesWouldn’t hold; […]
Recent Articles
The Cow in the Room
People often avoid the elephant in the room, but it’s time we talk about the cow in the room. She is a ruminant, after all, and can no longer be ignored. Indeed, the room is getting increasingly crowded and stinky. Let’s ruminate together and use our cowmon sense, so we can replace ignorance and crisis with science and solutions. It’s […]
Eyes
Blue eyes, sometimes grey and stormy Others clear as cloudless day. One moment safe Enveloped in translucent depths Next, the ice wall melts Glaciers crash below; an enormous splash Waves build A mountain face of swirling color, kaleidoscope of shimmering light Smothering Drowning Swallowing blue and salt and foam Choking Spewing Struggling to swim up Desperate for air Weak arms […]
Beyond This Room
Sure Thing It is that with which the wind blows And the snowflakes carry from the skies The mountains echo in their deep crevasses The sky possesses in her blue, graceful expanse The child has in her smile The earth in her soil The dog in my arms. It is that with which spreads the smell of rain The mist […]
Holy Land
I lived in a small community outside Wheeling, West Virginia for seven months in 2020. New Vrindaban – a spiritual community drawing on Vaisnava Hindu tradition, current population 100 people and 70 cows – was my refuge from COVID-19; a chance to turn inward, to connect with nature. And as a native New Yorker and certified East Coast Liberal, living […]
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I’ve dropped my broom
Gathering Chips
One of my favorite photographs hangs in my bathroom. At its center is a wheelbarrow, with wooden handles, braces, and legs. The ten-spoke wheel is iron. Cow chips – dry dung – are stacked two feet high in the tray. They also litter the grassy landscape, which is over-exposed and unending. In black and white, each chip looks like a […]
John
This summer I walked behind John in the woods. I followed him as he followed the trail. “Flies are getting bad,” he’d grumble, reaching for the tobacco in his pocket. I quickened my step whenever John puffed on his pipe, trying to reach the smoke without clipping the backs of his old leather boots. Woodsmen like John know that smoke […]
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 roots reach up from the soil, weaving across the path—the perfect snare for an imprecise step. Gusts of wind had recently […]
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 people have taught him. The piece has been adapted for publication here. Two Decembers ago, we cut up a few […]
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 she does with thick, dulled crayons. She might have been chasing a ball or a cat. From my desk now […]
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 struck by the monumental size of the landfill as much as the sight of dozens of people working tirelessly from the base to the very top […]