last night, this morning

On June 22, 2025July 24, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In anti-fascism, anti-zionism, apartheid, Crone, Cronehood, demons, Fascism, Gaza, Genocide, hellfire, holocaust, june, Lamentations, love, mortality, Poem, poetry, true things, War, Zionism, Zone of InterestLeave a comment

Last night
the US dropped bombs on Iran,
but still, two of the four barn swallow nestlings were ready to fledge, and did,
this morning

Last night
the US dropped bombs on Iran,
but still, i washed the hummingbird feeders meticulously with bottle brushes, as if they were my own once-baby-son’s bottles, and filled them with fresh, sugared well water,
this morning

Last night
the US dropped bombs on Iran,
but still, i tried to stake the seven foot,
no eight foot, tall hollyhocks, bent over by overnight wind gusts,
this morning

Last night
the US dropped bombs on Iran,
but still, Israel was committed to its holocaust of Gaza,
this morning

Last night
the US dropped bombs on Iran,
and i earnestly searched reddit for military opinions about possible conscription of our young people,
both this morning — and last night

Continue reading →

absurdity fathomed, sunday morning

On May 25, 2025July 31, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In anti-zionism, Death, Gaza, Genocide, holocaust, Home, kill lists, Lamentations, Life and Death, liminality, Palestine, Proof of Life, Rafah, Sun, Sunrise, threshold, Zionism, Zone of InterestLeave a comment

the absurdity of the beauty of this dawn moment,

the absurdity

of the normalization of any moment or day, in life,

of the uninhibited and unselfconscious public documentation of both the ordinary and the excesses of life

simultaneous to

the People of Gaza documenting

Israeli Zionists

confining, starving, shooting, bombing, maiming, killing

and

incinerating
children,

in Palestine.

Continue reading →

january 10 2025

On January 10, 2025January 13, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In america, anthropocene, bucolia, Capitalism, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Colonization, Crone, crone chronicles, Crone Consciousness, dirt road chronicles, Earth, Earth hospice, Earthling, Fascism, from the inner city to outer rural, Genocide, goodbye city life, heartbreak, Hospice, january, kinship, Lamentations, liminality, outer rural, planetary hospice, Poem, PoliticsLeave a comment

a sweet spot, a warm, quiet evening,

of a too-soft winter here,

on & of the good Earth,

that tempts the comfortable one

to flirt with forgetting

the hard totality

of this hot and cold, man-made,

loud and brutal World.

on Christmas eve

On December 25, 2024December 26, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In anthropocene, apartheid, birds, Capitalism, Chicago, Christmas, Christmas Eve, Cities, december, earthlings, fauna, flora, kin, Lament, Lamentations, Poem, poetry, Proof of Life, son, wildlife1 Comment

i traveled a river of concrete in a machine,
you traveled an ocean of air in a machine,
babies crying, inconsolably, you said
i said, eustachean tubes aren’t meant for 30,000 feet.

i am not meant for this,
neither are you,
neither are they.

not the opposite of joy
on Christmas eve
but the false pursuit of it
whatever is actually contrary to it
even if we don’t know it when we see it.
even if we refuse to know it when we see it.

if i allow myself to cry, he will see it on my face.

Continue reading →

399

On October 24, 2024October 27, 2024 By ©️K.T. 2025In anthropocene, author, autumn, bears, bruin, Crone, Cronehood, Death, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, endings, fauna, Grand Teton, grandmother, june, kin, kinship, Lament, Lamentations, Life, Life and Death, Mother, National Parks, photograph, Poem, wildlifeLeave a comment

The Queen, Mother and Grandmother Grizzly Bear,

the iconic Matriarch of Grand Teton National Park & the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem

Monday morning, June 22, 2020,
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming, US
The iconic and prolific female grizzly bear [399] — a mother and grandmother was in forage with her own eldest adult daughter [610] — also a mother, along with her cubs and grand cubs.

399, pictured here, who should be referred to respectfully as Grand Mother Bear, at the age of 24, in Spring of 2020 birthed four cubs [a rare, large litter no matter the age of the grizzly, but at 24, was truly astounding] was with 610, whom should be called Daughter Bear, who birthed two cubs as well.
All but two of the six cubs were mostly hidden by the deep sagebrush and dense fog.

What wild majesty to behold.
Lodged in my mind’s eye forevermore.

photo by: author

“Grizzly 399” is gone,

and this Autumn, and last, and every season in between have required so much Auden

Continue reading →

phenology II

On October 14, 2024November 19, 2024 By ©️K.T. 2025In autobiographical, autumn, being, biographical, climate, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Crone, crone chronicles, Crone Consciousness, Cronehood, Death, Earth hospice, empire, Gaza, Genocide, Hospice, israel, kill lists, kinship, Lament, Lamentations, land, Land Back, Mother, Mother God, Motherhood, mourning, Palestine, phenology, photograph, photography, Poem, poet, poetry, Resistance, Revolution, Samsara, War, ZionismLeave a comment

lilacs re-leaf, re-bloom
in October
hummingbird moths feed,

common lilacs [Syringa vulgaris]
— not cultivars —
in unprecedented re-leaf and *re-bloom*
October 12, 2024

and simultaneously,

She’s un-be-coming a human be-ing

She’s destined to,

we’re destined to, too

no
need to
tell me, explain
what’s happening

as constant witness,

as constant, remote witness to slaughter,

as constant gardener,

as constant tender,

as constant daughter,

i see.

i recognize.

i know,

Continue reading →

ghosts

On October 10, 2024October 10, 2024 By ©️K.T. 2025In anthropocene, autumn, Capitalism, climate, Climate Acceptance, Climate Chaos, Climate Collapse, Colonization, Crone, crone chronicles, Crone Consciousness, Death, Dendronglow, dying, Earth, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, Funerary, Genocide, ghosts, Hospice, kin, Lament, Lamentations, Life, Life and Death, liminal, mourning, october, Poem, poetry, Sixth Mass Extinction, WarLeave a comment

if you’re seeing this, you’re alive,

though dying — no matter your age, health, relative safety, relative comfortability —

on this living, though suffering and actively dying, planet

Earthlings and Earth together in a protracted hospice

right now, in these brief years, these grief years,

we are the “ever-living ghosts of what once was”

a “was” that most all of us alive this morning have never known as lived experience — save for the untouched tribes — 10,000 Uncontacted Peoples — 10,000 unsystematized, “uncivilized”

and the Ocean, and the few, still-standing Ancient One Trees; the untouched Desert, and the Mountains — even the youngest of them — The Tetons and The Himalayas, know what it “was” to be alive.

we are mere ghosts, walking dead.

Continue reading →

an open letter on a 65°f primary election day in Michigan | day 145 of Israel’s acute genocide of the Palestinian People

On February 27, 2024April 14, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In Abortion, anthropocene, anti-fascism, Ceasefire, climate, Climate Collapse, Crone, Crone Consciousness, Earth hospice, Earthling, earthlings, ecocide, exposition, Free Palestine, Gaza, Genocide, israel, Lament, Lamentations, Liberation, Open Letter, Palestine, Poem, Rafah, State of Israel, U.S. Elections, womb, women, Womenfolk, ZionismLeave a comment

good afternoon:

i feel like i should have started my heirloom tomato and chiltepin seeds on New Year’s Eve, but i haven’t even ordered or sorted seeds yet;

that I should’ve picked up a bottle of mineral facial sunscreen and given myself a pedicure yesterday;

that the swimsuits overwhelming retail spaces are not for spring breakers and resort goers but for anyone headed to North Avenue Beach in Chicago or Silver Beach in Michigan today;

and that i wish i didn’t know that the Thwaites Glacier is hanging on by fewer and weaker pinning points;

do you respect or even revere military service? i know many of you certainly do/

Continue reading →

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

On February 6, 2024February 17, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In 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 →

the recession

On February 2, 2024February 3, 2024 By ©️K.T. 2025In 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

Continue reading →

january 3rd, 2024

On January 3, 2024January 3, 2024 By ©️K.T. 2025In art is resistance, earthlings, Free Palestine, Gaza, Genocide, grief, Indigenous Land, Lament, Lamentations, Life and Death, Palestine, Poem, poetry, State of Israel, ZionismLeave a comment

I was asked how many real poets we need.

I said:

We need enough real poets who can together write a single poem that stops this genocide.
Mosab Abu Toha

the year of unmagical thinking

On December 27, 2023January 14, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In december, Didion, end-of-year, Joan Didion, Lament, Lamentations, new year poem, new year’s eve, Poem, poetry, threshold, TonantzinLeave a comment

all delusions were set out in the meadow for scavengers
along with all the seeds she didn’t start this year
she had prophetic dreams
she barely touched her tarot
he now lives entirely outside of her heart
she showed up first, but only as her second, or third choice
then, she died days later, in hospice, at 56,
and presumably,
knows now that she couldn’t take it with her, Egyptian-Pharaonic style
blood and cultural descendants of holocaust survivors are revelling in an ongoing genocide
and someone finally inspected his spots,
but leopards cannot change theirs
some of us, are just about ‘dat’ life, she re-learned
others, lie to themselves about their innocence,
or responsibility, including me,
we are all stereotypes
radical self-promotion and self-reinforcing mediocrity are apparently the new power couple,
she didn’t make it to the Remedios Varo show at the Art Institute of Chicago – with, and on, purpose.
her bones began to ache during sunlight, too, so that’s new,
”People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time.”

Continue reading →

Oh, Tonantzin, Our Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe!

On December 12, 2023October 30, 2025 By ©️K.T. 2025In america, Capitalism, Colonization, Congo, Creation Story, Crone, demons, DRC, Earthling, Gaza, Genocide, Guadalupe, Indigenous Land, kin, La Virgen of Guadalupe, Lamentations, Life and Death, Mother, Mother God, Palestine, Sacred Feminine, spirits, State of Israel, The Virgin of Guadalupe, Tonantzin, WomenfolkLeave a comment

Today, on the feast day of La Virgen de Guadalupe, from the valley and river of the wolves,

who is and always was Tonantzin, the Nahuas’ Universal Mother of Earth, they being one and the same parthenogenetic Creatrix-entity of Life —and of Death, here on Earth:

In the name of Tonantzin, I rebuke the State of Israel and the United States

— both nations stand defiantly in their ongoing slaughter of 18,000 human beings so far — nearly all of those killed — are Palestinian civilians and more than half of them are children — hundreds of thousands more are injured, maimed — in tremendous pain, suffering from unfathomable loss, from hunger, thirst, and disease — and dispossessed of and displaced from their mothers, families, beds, kitchens, homes, pets, art, schools, toys, lifework — and land,

and the Western and Eastern global capitalist powers — in their protracted genocide, mass exploitation, enslavement and dispossession of the People of Congo,

I call to and incant unto Tonantzin for the downfall of these two seated governments, and of the despots and oligarchs, that are a scourge on this good Earth and all Life upon it.

May these demons be stricken by Her snakes and devoured by Her wolves and may their bones be cast into the eternal inferno with not one cinder or ash remaining. Forgotten Forever.

Continue reading →