DAN BRADY / ANTHROPOCENE — always crashing

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its own advantage. We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution, ages and empires accumulate toward planet death. Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation, but across a single lifetime we hardly notice—maybe even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with added intensity. Drought will expand beyond the Great Lakes. Rainforests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse. Some cities buried in water, others burned away. The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many can survive and the choices of natural selection can never be foreseen.

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its changes its environment for its own advantage. We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution, ages and empires accumulate toward planet death. Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation, but across a single lifetime we hardly notice—maybe even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with added intensity. Drought will expand beyond the Great Lakes. Rainforests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse. Some cities buried in water, others burned away. The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many can survive and the choices of natural selection can never be foreseen.

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its changes its environment for its own advantage . We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution, ages and empires accumulate toward planet death . Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation , but across a single life time we hardly notice—maybe even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with added intensity. Drought will expand be yond the Great Lakes. Rainforests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse. Some cities buried in water, others burned away . The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many can survive and the choices of natural selection can never be foreseen.

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its changes its environment for its own advantage . We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution , ages and empires accumulate toward planet death . Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation , but across a single life time we hardly notice—maybe even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with add ed intensity . Drought will expand be yond the Great Lakes. Rainforests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse . Some cities buried in water, others burned away . The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many can survive and the choices of natural selection can never be foreseen.

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its changes its environment for its own advantage . We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution , ages and empires accumulate toward planet death . Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation , but across a single life time we hardly notice— may be even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with add ed intensity . Drought will expand be yond the Great Lakes. Rainf or ests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse . Some cities buried in water , others burned away . The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many can survive and the choices of natural selection can never be foreseen.

It began when we did. The human animal changes its environment for its own advantage. We do not adapt, but force all else to adapt to us. From the first fire to the rise of agriculture to the Industrial Revolution, ages and empires accumulate toward planet death. Across Geologic time this is an obvious transformation, but across a single lifetime we hardly notice—maybe even refuse to notice. Storms will keep coming with added intensity. Drought will expand beyond the Great Lakes. Rainforests will be reduced to vines. Population centers collapse. Some cities buried in water, others burned away. The Arctic becomes the most hospitable place for people like us. People. It is a return to an Earth without humans brought on by humans. Acid oceans will dissolve all shells and become awash in tough algae. The world without predators. Ecologies simplified, common and small. Only so many creatures can survive. That is, until the environment creates new ones through a natural selection between choices we can never foresee.

Dan Brady is the author of the poetry collection Strange Children, forthcoming from Publishing Genius in 2018, and two chapbooks, Cabin Fever / Fossil Record (Flying Guillotine Press) and Leroy Sequences (Horse Less Press). Recent poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Apt, Sink Review, and So & So Magazine. He is the poetry editor of Barrelhouse and lives in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and two kids. Learn more at danbrady.org.