Author: ©️K.T.2026

Earthling, poet, crone. In planetary hospice.

phenology

On By ©️K.T.2026In Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, phenology, PoemLeave a comment

“and the [future] memory of snow”

the ticks never slept
the lilacs just awoke
shh! go back to bed
this clock is all fucked up

the roses’ leaves are greening
the kale and fennel, well, they never died
i hear the blackbirds singing
yet fruit’s nowhere in sight

he thought he saw some brown bats
and i’ve sighted bunnies in the field
i’ve worried about a pre-emergence
and now, these worries become real

february rains replaced snowpack
this, another, cause for dread.
and now the maplesap’s flowing,
it seems this winter’s all but dead

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Destroyers of World

On By ©️K.T.2026In abrupt climate change, anthropocene, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Death, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, film, Near Term Human Extinction, Nuclear Weapons, Palestine, planetary hospice, runaway greenhouse effect, Sixth Mass Extinction, thresholdLeave a comment

last evening, i finally finished watching the film “Oppenheimer” — a biographical film centered primarily on two forces of physics:

J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Atomic Bomb

in the film, the cohort of physicists involved in the development of the atomic bomb postulated that the force and heat of the nuclear explosion could trigger a runaway atomic chain reaction by igniting atmospheric nitrogen —- thus, engulfing and destroying the entire planet — their confident mathematical conclusion: “near zero” — but not absolutely zero;

that infinitesimal quantum potential was apparently played to over-dramatic effect for the film — curious about the validity of this apocalyptic concern, i learned that this was never more than a scenario that required elimination in early mathematical and scientific due diligence;

still, the possibility instantly struck me as a parallel for the runaway greenhouse effect — where the greenhouse gas concentrations in Earth’s atmosphere trigger feedback loops that indeed ignite and fuel further feedback loops — causing abrupt climate change, planetary inhabitability and then mass extinction — where no adaptation, mitigation or survival is possible and plants, animals and humans die en masse —

conditions of which, we are on the cusp right now — an anthropogenic-caused-and-accelerated global temperature event horizon that is postulated as a very real probability by climate scientists and evolutionary/conservation biologists across the globe even as it’s played out as something that could occur over the next centuries or millennia rather than in this or the next decade or two —

yet, that more-than-zero-possibility scenario was detailed in a January 2024 article in Popular Mechanics based on a published model in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics

i write today to pay my belated respects and sympathies and to process my retroactive and present grief and rage:

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Degrowth or die-out: an imperative for the insatiable species.

On By ©️K.T.2026In Capitalism, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, Essay, ki, kin, kinship, Lament, Lamentations, Land Back, planetary hospice, Poem, Sixth Mass ExtinctionLeave a comment

this informal essay was inspired by Jeff Gibbs’ statement posted February 6, 2024;

I publish this, as per — to be publicly accountable and on record.

Development is development is development. All development damages the remaining already profoundly fragmented wilderness-ish habitat no matter what kind of development it is — no matter the seemingly innocuous or good intent: a paved bike path through forest, a solar array in the desert, an ayahuasca retreat center on a river in northern Illinois, a new organic farm.

“If you build it, they will come.” And then never stop coming and building.

We must stop destroying land to build more of anything — we must begin to reclaim and return land to nature and welcome, encourage, champion and personally embody the practices of degrowth.

An example of behavior:

“You should build a little rental cottage on your land over there for supplemental income and to sustain yourself through your golden years.”

– no, i will not build anything there ever — that’s where i set out the salt licks for the deer – by the three apple trees; no, that area is too near to where the blue racer lays her eggs every summer; no! as tempting as that false security is, i will live modestly and reject improvements for improvement’s sake — and embrace flaws and maintenance, and do with what i have — or without. this land is not mine; i merely temporarily co-occupy and humbly and gratefully tend and share this land.

also, there are no more golden years — to quote Beatrix Kiddo, “Bitch, you don’t have a future” — do you understand the science, the projections? let me help you to, i want to.

An opposite example of behavior:

Continue reading “Degrowth or die-out: an imperative for the insatiable species.” →

Free Palestine : Day 122 of Israel’s genocide — and its ongoing dispossession of the Palestinian People

On By ©️K.T.2026In anti-zionism, Capitalism, Ceasefire, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, ecocide, Free Palestine, Gaza, Genocide, Indigenous Land, Land Back, Liberation, Life and Death, Palestine, State of Israel, ZionismLeave a comment

Today is day 122 of the settler-colonial state of Israel’s GENOCIDE of the Indigenous Palestinian People on their ancestral lands.

NO place is safe from the brutality and savagery of the Israeli government and army — not evacuation routes, not refugee camps, not “safe zones”, not schools, not hospitals, not universities.

Israel has murdered 11,500 children in 122 days.
Israel has murdered 11,500 children in 122 days.
Israel has murdered 11,500 children in 122 days.

Israel has murdered at least 30,000 people in 122 days.

Israel along with the US, UK, Italy, Australia, Finland and other nations are depriving Palestinians of UN humanitarian aid by defunding the UN’s Relief and Works Agency — and by physically blocking shipments of food, water, and medicine and medical supplies. Israel and its coalition are starving-out Gazan refugees.

Israel Occupation Forces have boldly filmed, documented and published their own war crimes against both “prisoners of war” and civilians.

According to UN Women: “70 per cent of people killed in Gaza are today estimated to be women and children, including two mothers per hour killed since the beginning of the crisis.” — This is textbook genocide – to destroy women, mothers and children is to destroy the future viability of a people.

Israel has decimated Gaza and murdered Palestinians with the direct and sustained support of the United States Government, funded by US taxpayers’ money and with US Pentagon & defense contractor weapons.

While the People in the United States:

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the recession

On By ©️K.T.2026In climate, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, Hospice, Lament, Lamentations, Near Term Human Extinction, planetary hospice, Poem, poetry, Sixth Mass Extinction, thresholdLeave a comment

i witnessed the last of the snow piles
hand-shoveled or machine-threwn
and the natural drifts too
and the mound in the hollow
of the hügelkultur crescent moon

slowly recede, in a mesmerizing, seemingly molassic, week’s long retreat
then finally and sadly, concede

to the undormant grasses and soft ground beneath
to the sunlit warmth
of these nouveau
great lakes winters

my god,

what global madness
this adored microcosm, my priceless homestead, reveals
and catechizes for me:

our violent, human heat
an unrelenting torrent of accelerant that would
vanquish the ancients


melt greenland’s sheets of ice,
calve antarctic glaciers, strand polar bears,
expose or drown granite, basalt, gneiss


all, in the time of
that old sugar maple’s life

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postpartum

On By ©️K.T.2026In Alchemy, Aurum, Birth, Crone, Cronehood, Feminine, grandmother, kin, maiden, maternity, Mother, Poem, poetry, Sacred Feminine, symbiosity, womb, women, WomenfolkLeave a comment

fetal cells
remain in a mother’s body for decades
they know this
particularly
because of mothers of sons

son cells discovered
co-mingling in their mother’s
blood
and marrow
long after their first breaths of atmosphere
and for far too many mothers,
long after their child’s last

we mothers, in-secret chimeras
29, 50,
years after birthing /

no wonder

he breathes
1,191.582 miles away from me

as the crow flies,
as the monarch flies
as the hummingbird flies

and still, i feel the cells of gold i alchemized

for 42 strange, wondrous weeks

in my crone bones

postpartum is forever

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goldilocks’ zone

On By ©️K.T.2026In climate, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, Hospice, Near Term Human Extinction, Poem, poetry, Sixth Mass Extinction, symbiosityLeave a comment

the widespread muck,
usual to late March
now spoils the January, the December, February too

there are no more
seasons,

only drownt
or parched

what use
is axial tilt, solar distance
while these men
lock-up the thermostat and disarrange the elements

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& answered

On By ©️K.T.2026In PoemLeave a comment

the kind of god who made
a predator, at all
a carnivore, at all
and worst, of all

a two-legged omnivore
that must char his stone-killed and -cut meat over flinted fire
to choke it down his gullet,
that cloaks himself in the hide and fur and skin and silk of killed, dead things,
that rises in the morning to mine forests, coal, ore, and ancient dead things
to form and forge steel
for his sole animus

theft, consumption and death

of land, women and children,

that’s who.

preparation

On By ©️K.T.2026In agraria, bucolia, climate, Climate Collapse, Crone, crone chronicles, Crone Consciousness, Cronehood, dirt road chronicles, Earthling, ecocide, Genocide, goodbye city life, inner city, outer rural, Palestine, planetary hospice, Poem, poetry, ruralia, Winter, WomenfolkLeave a comment

she counted propane canisters
for her two “Mr. Heaters”
put batteries in her camp lanterns — circa 2004,
set out votive and prayer candles, matches and lighters,

worked past midnight
to empty, wash, fill or refill glass wine bottles with water for drinking, teeth-brushing, cooking

that is the advantage of the white wine screw cap bottles
p.s. VOGA pinot grigio is unrivaled for this use
she’s saved them over the months for this sole purpose, those Italians sure know what they’re doin’

she rotated supply: filled buckets with the previously stored precious water,
placed them in the bathtubs for toilet flushing
and in Igloo jugs
for hand and face washing
& dishwashing

(and, hoe baths too)

this beautiful welled water, pumped from 75 feet below the surface, 10 feet of clay and 65 of sand, her friend once researched county well drill permit records for her.

she made a pot of marinara, boiled 3 lbs of potatoes, planned for pancakes, printed out dutch oven bread recipes,

she set out the dog’s paw wax and his wardrobe of coats,

she refreshed her vintage wool blankets on low heat with honeysuckle-infused dryer sheets,

found her favorite j. crew wool men’s sweater, moss green — circa 1999, which reminded: she best learn some knitting – for repairs and darning, at the very least, the cuff seam is unraveling, but, my god, it’s so warm.

she filled all the bird feeders before sunset, although she’s spotted deer at them at twilight and midnight — using their tongues to excavate the seed,

she set the snow shovel and outdoor broom just outside, beside her back door

all this,

just in case

freezing lines and tree limbs knock the power out

and Lake Effect drifts become temporarily insurmountable

she’s always prepared, she always knows what to do

or can generally figure it out, figure a way out of it

even without GPS

except:

what to do in

a genocide and in climate collapse.

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“wolf”

On By ©️K.T.2026In Anubis, Death, Justice, Lajuana Lampkins, Life and Death, Poem, poetry, the old godsLeave a comment
for the One and Only

Lajuana Lampkins

March 29, 1957 ~ February 26, 2025

May Allah grant her Jannah

& for All the Mothers whose children were — and will be murdered by the State — domestic or foreign, & for All Mothers who have lost — and will lose their children to the brutal and carceral machinations and institutions of the State
Weighing of the Heart | Book of the Dead
Thoth and Anubis weigh the candidate’s heart against the feather of Ma’at while Ammit hungrily awaits the judgment.
Inside Ancient Egypt exhibit,
Field Museum of Natural History,
Chicago, January 2013
photo: by author

she cries “wolf!” so often
that it becomes tempting to ignore

yet the wolves were always nearby,
stalking, steady clawing at her door

there’s a Wolf curled up at her feet now,
but he’s not of the

pack of violent beasts,

you see, this Wolf is not a hungried one,


He does not want her for his feast

Anubis is this Wolf’s name,


and He waits to gently weigh her Heart

on the Golden Scales of Justice


He’s balanced with a badge

and service glock,

these reparations just for her,

and Mothers like her,


in lieu of the Feather of Ma’at

Continue reading ““wolf”” →