I knew my sister was going to die as soon as I heard the words, “aggressive glial blastoma.” For four months she worsened day by day unto her death—she knew too and talked to her children and forgave their father. Yet when that phone call came, “She died this morning,” everything drained out of my heart, my whole being fled from within me and I was empty.

I’ve known for twenty years that global warming is the consequence of our human habits of procreating and consuming. Yet when the United Nations reported this out and it is now roughly “conventional wisdom,” everything drained out of my heart, my whole being fled from within me and I was empty.

“Still the band played on

And the band played on

The room was getting hotter

And someone hit the light

There was power in the darkness

There was violence in the night

And the golden sons and daughters

They were coming up for air

You were standing with your back

to me

Nero fiddled as Rome burned?