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Kitty Beer’s stories and articles have appeared in print and online in the U.S. and Canada, including her work as an environmental journalist. She grew up in New England and raised her two children in Canada, Germany, and upstate New York. She holds her B.A. from Harvard University, and her M.A. from Cornell University.

Kitty Beer

Beer’s series of novels about climate change is titled Resilience: A Trilogy of Climate Chaos, reflecting her emphasis on the courage of people overcoming disaster. The novels are What Love Can’t Do (2006), Human Scale (2010), and The Hampshire Project (2017). All three are published by Plain View Press, a 38-year-old literary publishing house focusing on issues of sociopolitical importance.

House of Two Deaths

Billy’s house is empty now.
Sunny little pretty house,
Cunning smiling house, house of
Death.
Death has tracked us,
Mocked us now, for years.
The father first, our brother, Billy.
That little boy on a tricycle with whiteblond hair,
Serious little boy with leprechaun wit.
His son has that sparkle in his eyes. Or had.
O Josh, to suffer so. Sunny Josh,
Sunny smiling agonizing torn apart Josh.

Sorrow, sorrow to my heart.

Beautiful Nicole’s chocolate hair cascades over her
Glowering face (not glowing, not flowering),
Hair and face soaked with tears of rage.
Her grief is a fury, Furies.
The House of Atreus–cursed house.
But there’s no blood; cancer is like that.

Bill went slowly. His mind went, he became
Senile, a child again. He said
Goodbye to me after he couldn’t speak
As he lay there, put his hand on my hand over his,
Smiling as if already with his God:
Bill the dying comforting me the living.

Then it was Rose’s turn, loyal wife,
Passionate strong mother,
Raging against the dying of the light
To no avail. The cruelty!
Torn breast, ripped spine, corroded away
Riddled with the vile disease.

O Rosie, don’t go!
Stay here! Your children are screaming for you.
But there she goes, in her terrible pain at the last
Almost glad. But leaving them is worst.
She knows, and this knowing kills her most:
She will never see them again.

Broken house.

— Kitty Beer

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