Eremocene, by Laura Ann Reed

Mount Rainier, photography by Mehari Berhe (USA, b. Eritrea) 2025

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Eremocene
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             We will soon be leaving behind the Anthropocene
                   and entering the Eromocene, the Age of Loneliness.  
                   E.O. Wilson
 
To the right of my adjustable bed
in room 537, Mount Rainier rises 
remote and unknowable
beyond the plate glass pane.
 
Seeking a stay against the chaos of needles 
and tubes, my uncertain future,
I turn toward the frozen dome.  My nurse
tells me it’s steadily shrinking, even as the peak 
blushes pink in first light.
 
Seen from this distance 
through the soiled and oily mist 
spewing from the city below,
the truncated volcano
with its lessened crest 
and vanished caverns of ice
is visibly slipping into the invisible. 
 
Minute by minute the form diminishes 
until it resembles a lowering cloud, 
the outline indistinct as a dream 
retrieved from childhood.
 
Overcome with loneliness
in this prison of illness
and age, of hollowing bones
and aberrant cells, 
fear spreads through my chest  
as a pair of dark starlings flap past
the glass, two black ribbons taken
from a mourner’s hat and tossed 
into the sullied air.

Laura Ann Reed
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Laura Ann Reed is the author of the chapbook Homage to Kafka (Poetry Box, 2025). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and has appeared or is forthcoming in the Laurel Review and wildness, among other journals, as well as in nine anthologies including Poetry of Presence II (Grayson Books, 2023) and The Wonder of Small Things (Storey Publishing, 2023)  Reed holds master’s degrees in clinical psychology and performing arts. https://lauraannreed.net/