On The News That Sagittarius A Grows Hun [TRADE PAPER ]

In late 2019 astronomers discovered that Sagittarius A*, a supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy was getting hungrier, consuming nearby matter at a rate never before seen. We humans now dominate every inch of this planet, every ecological niche. We have enslaved every human and every species we find useful, exterminating those we do notand yet we grow hungrier. We are our own Sagittarius A*.

Scientists and activists tell us we are reaching the tipping point, that if we dont change our ways immediately, there will be no return. They are mistaken. That was long ago. We have written our tragedy, and we are playing out the final scene.?On the News that Sagittarius A* Grows Hungrier?is a celebration of what makes us human: love, laughter, desire, thought and sorrow, and it is a lament for this world we have consumed, a letter left from our insignificant villages & in a barren land where locks are unknown, / because theres nothing to steal, so that after we are gone If anyone should pass, & at least well still have our names.

Nicola Vulpe?was born in Montreal. He completed a doctorate in philosophy at the Sorbonne, and taught in Spain before settling in Ottawa. His poems and translations have appeared in journals such as?Alba,?The Antigonish Review,?Carousel,?The Ex-Puritan,?The Manhattan Review,?Mediterranean Poetry,?Montr?al Serai,?Slush Pile Magazine, and?Stand Magazine. He has also published a novella,?The Extraordinary Event of Pia H., who turned to admire a chicken on the Plaza Mayor, and four previous collections of poetry, including, with Guernica,?Insult to the Brain?and?Through the Waspmouth I Drew You, which both received Fred Cogswell Awards for Excellence in Poetry.