wooblr

congratulatiosn! it is a the creature.

Behind my home winds an Arroyo. Elephant Grass, an escapee from the landscaping of some wealthy immigrant upstream, spreads downstream each year. Far from its home range in the foothills of the Himalayas, there is no Monsoon Season to break up the strands, and it does not flower. I wonder if the entire strand is a single organism. Each winter, the frosts kill everything above ground, leaving ten foot tall tinder to split and fray in the sun.

There is a Rapeseed plantation downcountry. They don’t call themselves that: if you ask them, they’d say they are an Agricultural Conglomerate Cultivating Organic Non-GMO Canola Oil. But as I watch the blooms of escaped Rapeseed sprout many miles downwind of any legal claim, I feel compelled to use the antiquated nomenclature.

Off the coast, Spiny Lobster go about their days, their brilliantly colored shells and large antenna distinguishing them from the Lobster I sell at Work. That Lobster grew in waters many hundreds of miles north, on the other side of Canada, in Alaska. Our California Spiny Lobster is worth 3x as much in China, and most of those caught will be shipped there to be consumed. Petroleum will be burned both ways; refrigerators and freezers running all the while. Much of the lobster I defrost does not sell, not for $45/lb, and inevitably will be thrown away, uneaten.

The drywall in my home is mostly Gypsum. They say that there’s a vein of Gypsum in New Mexico big enough to supply the USA with drywall for 1000 years. I do not wonder why that estimate is phrased that way. Never mind that the Gypsum is a relic of an ancient Sea; the bones of a landform, and took tens of thousands of years to form. The walls are excellent. Fire retardant. Rot resistant.

Chocolate Milk, in a plastic half-gallon jug, from the grocery store. A taste and texture of and from my childhood. It is thick: it does not separate, it needs no shakings before serving. In the Philippines and Indonesia, kelp is raised in shallow sea beds, strung along fishing lines and bamboo posts. The weeds are harvested and dried, ground, sifted, washed. It is treated with hot alkali, centrifuged, filtered. The Carrageenan that results will be mixed with chocolate powder from god-knows-where, such that it will remain suspended in the milk long past its expiry date.

had a bad low blood pressure moment last night and messily asked my partner for saltines and water before realizing i should probably ask for the Blood Pressure Medication I Need To Take. while they went to go grab it though i still had water and crackers so in a daze i took a swig of water but didnt swallow and then tried to cram 2 saltines in my mouth. full of water. in bed. with mouth full of water

this is what out-of-context scientific illustrations look like