Let us stand outside our spacecraft
long enough at height high enough
to see Earth breathing its seasons,
to feel its pulses across years,
the rise and fall of global indices—
vegetation, water vapor, total rainfall,
snow cover, land surface temperature,
net radiation, sea surface temperature—
Howard V. Hendrix has written about population and climate issues in novels, essays and poetry. His recent contributions to Analog and the San Francisco Chronicle are informed by the loss of his home in California's Creek Fire of 2020.