A journal of art + literature engaging with nature, culture, the environment & ecology

THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A NATURAL DISASTER

Dianne Araral, Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines-Singapore

 

after the North Luzon, Philippines earthquake, July 2022

by the grace of God we will rebuild

again, and again and again and

when my hands give up bury me under

our house, so I will never leave Cagayan Valley

 

human failure turns natural hazard into disaster

 

life-giving becomes life and death —

when mangrove barriers become concrete and glass enclave

a storm surge will take you before your time

 

divine creation becomes freak destruction.

 

that’s just the thing —

seismic shifts are natural

lack of infrastructure is not 

landslides are natural

poverty is not

eruptions are natural

corruption is not

 

as for me? I don’t pray anymore. but I still ask for 

patience, when the president’s fools will call it a “tragedy”

peace, for the people we can’t bring back

creation, destruction, my resurrection

and time. my turn to rest.

 

Dianne Araral (they/them/sya) is a trans ecolesbian from Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines, currently teaching social science at the National University of Singapore. They are interested in non-human kinship, speculative fiction, and rethinking our pedagogies in the midst of urgent climate crisis. You can find them on the Fragmentary Institute of Comparative Timelines (FICT.site), LitHub, Medium, and at home, brewing kombucha.

Mediterranean (Mediterranea)

Three poems by Janice L. Freytag