Anthropocene obscene as orange

all the news is weather now and haze the new azure

every sky now the sky of Rousseau’s Nègre attaqué par un jaguar:

a pustulant slate pinned by a pestilent sun

as fittingly orange as fake tans and falling tamarins

quand le ciel est toujours orageux, orange is the new blue

the last colour humans learned will be the first they forget

as smog and fallout forever pall the sky’s former nitrogen hue

the new orange sun estranges all that hinges on its glower

smoke is the new wind and forest fires filter the light you see all

through like algorithms filter all the news that’s fit to squint

like all-weather news this pervasive smoke aches your head

like reading the Red Cross is grateful for your gift to Hurricane Irma

wording that makes you wonder where your money’s going

in this drowning world read up on storm surges and listen

with refreshed attention to the best of REM

the cities wash away

eye of the hurricane listen

and to the Hip whose New Orleans is sinking turned into fact too

contemplate how weather cuts the power of the state

the smoke-smuggered sky decants another uncanny rain

so close your conflict mineral laced laptop and prep your go bag

take just what’s irreplaceable like letters and photos

memorize the less busy back country routes the radius

of available mileage and never go to sleep on an empty tank

but whether you’ll need to drive or to dig depends on what

outages and outrages the orange day after tomorrow brings