Words&Dirt

“Tina blinked once, twice.  ‘Scientists tell us they can’t predict the exact effects of global warming.’

‘Correct.  We tell you that, because we are more honest than other people.  We know evidence will keep coming in.  It does not mean we ignore the subject until further notice.  We brush our teeth, for instance, even though we do not know exactly how many cavities we may be avoiding.’

‘Well, a lot of people are just not convinced.  We’re here to get information.’

He rolled his eyes to the ceiling and showed his teeth in a grimace, the tip of his tongue just visible between his front teeth.  When he finally looked at her again, this seemed to cause him actual pain.  ‘If you were here to get information, Tina, you would not be standing in my laboratory telling me what scientists think.’

She opened her mouth, but he cut her off.  ‘What scientists disagree on now, Tina, is how to express our shock.  The glaciers that keep Asia’s watersheds in business are going right away.  Maybe one of your interns could Google that for you.  The Arctic is genuinely collapsing.  Scientists used to call these things the canary in the mine.  What they say now is, The canary is dead.  We are at the top of Niagara Falls, Tina, in a canoe.  There is an image for your viewers.  We got here by drifting, but we cannot turn around for a lazy paddle back when you finally stop pissing around.  We have arrived at the point of an audible roar.  Does it strike you as a good time to debate the existence of the falls?'”

––Flight Behavior, by Barbara Kingsolver, pg. 367

“I looked at my marble-white hands and wondered what it was like to be dead like the woman in the song.  You’d think: the beautiful things of the world aren’t much good in the end are they?  I’m going to stay dead.

I thought that was probably what it was like.”

––The Butcher Boy, by Patrick McCabe, pg. 54