Cliff Lewis

I'm from the future. We need you. Ever since he learned about climate change, twelve-year-old Jonah has dreaded a weather-beaten future where not even his asthma medication can save him. Luckily, a girl from that future arrives just in time to throw Jonah a lifeline. Sunny traveled back to the 2020s with a mission: help Jonah launch a climate strike big enough to rewrite history. To do it, he'll have to recruit his entire school before Halloween. Why so soon? Sunny won't say. But how can Jonah win over 600 classmates when the only thing he dreads more than the end of the world is talking to other kids?

From confessions of love: "You say my love has evaporated . . . / But I proclaim my love is a true flood . . . / a faithful geyser, / Roman fountains overflowing, / the Seven Seas in expanse, / the mighty Mississippi in strength, / the Angel Falls in height, / our tranquil pond in sincerity." to condemnations of how readily we sell our integrity to employers: "Our backs are corn stobs / Burning in the sun Under the watchful eyes / Of a frayed black crow. / I spit on ourselves." to exploring the heavy topics of science: "On the shelf . . . / is the "leave-me-alone-box" - / Bell Lab's only "useless machine" / that once turned on / is single-mindedly programmed / only to turn itself off. / Living with innate limits / as products of that rogue, selfish DNA . . . / Aren't we all . . . / desperately in search of purpose / but denied that satisfaction, / only reproducing bodies / that live to be turned off, / if lucky, in three score and ten?", from discussion of environmentalism to the history of jazz, Cliff Lewis takes us on a poetic journey that will not only lay bare our souls, but also deepen our understanding of the universe in which we make our homes.