field notes of a climate scientist, 2020
S.E. HARTZ
I have signed on as
night watchman to the end of the world.
I live on an alien planet, my body heavy fruit
ripening under a hothouse sun.
I watch the disintegration of seasons,
in this strange, improbable city
dangling moments from falling into the sea.
Down at the water, I gather the dregs of a
metropolis constantly overflowing itself as the storms rise.
How do I spend the balance of my life,
the unknown remaining days?
I am one on the vanguard,
watching sickness bubble beneath the surface,
measuring invisible poisons, marking acid shifts,
seeing through time and space.
I wonder over apocalypses, the private and the universal,
scales stacking out to infinity.
How lucky am I, to mourn only futures?
S.E. Hartz (she/her) is a fiction writer and environmental scientist living in Brooklyn, New York. Her writing can be found at small leaf press, Lammergeier, and applestreet. For musings (both fictional and factual) on nature, time, energy, and apocalypse, follow her on Twitter at @unsilentspring.