On The News that Sagittarius A* Grows Hungrier

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 not—and yet we grow hungrier. We are our own Sagittarius A*.

Scientists and activists tell us we are reaching the tipping point, that if we don’t 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 there’s nothing to steal,” so that after we are gone “If anyone should pass, … at least we’ll still have our names.”