The Tawny-Green Steppe
April 15th, 1832
On the second day of our anchorage at the mouth of the Rio Santa Cruz, I led a party of sailors up...
Our Lies Are Our Fondest Hopes–And Science Will Destroy Them (That’s...
I never liked science. Numbers are boring. I never was this nerd guy, doing the math, imagining algorithms, checking things in a laboratory... I...
Sky
It races over the Bay of Bengal.
It charges through river, paddy, and city.
From Boston in my WhatsApp to family in Calcutta,
I speak of Arfan.
Perhaps...
Chance that Mimics Choice
How is anything radically new ever created in nature? Is it true, as some scientists say, that everything under the sun is just a...
Black Hole Beheld
Image: "Black Hole Image Makes History" NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Photostream, licensed under CC 2.0.
Michael Leach:
I was inspired to write the poem ‘Black...
hottest july
on record. we’ve heard
it before, the hottest ____
on record. just fill in the
revolving blank.
hail mary, full of grace
ravenous wildfires. floods.
look! here’s video, a camper
van...
The Diapers
I remember the diapers—ripping open bag after bag of used diapers. It was 2014 and a friend and I had volunteered to help with...
Nature Is Healing
"... you have to surrender to the essential wildness of the work.” -
Julia Phillips
When I surrender to the essential wildness of my yard, it’s...
Up Close
A dandelion’s fruiting head
a jeweled amphora.
Spinach tissue’s blue
mosaic, too beautiful to eat.
Stomata dot the skin of trillium
like points on a map, what’s laid bare
by...
Fox Humana
If asked, the fox might say that one of the problems in her world, and ours, is that humans have overtaken her species as...
In Case of Moths
For days at the tail end of the Obama administration, I haunted my neighborhood thrift store, casing the free pile and the clothing racks...
Can Your House Kill You?
I squeezed past Maya and closed my office door behind her, shutting out the last rays of natural light. Under the cool fluorescents, she...