recently I believed my mother marched
(adorned by her diamond?) with the Black
Sash, a white women’s resistance organiza-
tion, but when I asked her brother about
this, he said, “Oh, no, she wasn’t political
like that.”
Am I pleased my fingers are in fact
too narrow to wear my mother’s ring? The
truth is my mind is as narrow as my fin-
gers, caring mostly for the look of what I
adorn them with. I’d have preferred a white
diamond, in white gold, something a little
smaller even. I could melt the gold, sell it,
and get the stone cut into teardrops to hang
from my ears, ears that cannot hear the
answers my mother cannot give.
“Day Zero,” the black man says, downing
his prosecco. “Can you imagine? An actual
date when all the water is supposed to run
out?” I look at him, and for a brief moment I
wish just once I’d be called upon to account
for my provenance, for myself.
Hove, East Sussex, UKAm I pleased my fingers
are in fact too narrow to
wear my mother’s ring?
The truth is my mind is
as narrow as my fingers,
caring mostly for the
look of what I adorn
them with.Sandra Jensen has a number
of short-story and flash-fiction
publications in literary journals
and magazines and has received
a number of awards, including
the 2012 bosque Fiction Competition and the
J. G. Farrell Award for best novel-in-progress. Born
in South Africa, Jensen has British and Canadian
citizenship.
READERS RESPOND
What work of fiction, poetry, theater, or
nonfiction has had the most profound impact
on your understanding of climate change?CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2“Marcia Bjornerud’s book Timefulness: How
Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the
Wo r l d (2018) sees Deep Time thinking as an
essential concept in the Anthropocene. We
must think multigenerationally to reverse
human damage to Earth.”- Susan N. Maher
“While it may underestimate literary
responses to the climate crisis, Amitav
Ghosh’s The Great Derangement: Climate
Change and the Unthinkable at least holds
us accountable for our distractions.”- Laird Christensen
“I just started reading Field Notes from a
Catastrophe, by Elizabeth Kolbert, which is
creative nonfiction/reportage. I love how
the reporter, Kolbert, is in the trenches and
describes her own experiences talking to
climate scientists. Engage.”- Kenny Yim
“Though not overtly a book on climate
change, the late C. D. Wright’s Casting Deep
Shade invokes the magnificence of beech
trees as emblematic of all we stand to lose in
our hell-bent lurch toward destruction. Her
quirky, memorable poems harmonize with
Denny Moers’s magical photos of beeches
and beg us... Listen.”- Frank Paino
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